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HEBREW 


MEN    AND    TIMES, 


THE  PATEIAECHS  TO  THE  MESSIAH. 


JOSEPH    HENRY    ALLEN. 


BOSTON: 
WALKER,    WISE,    AND    COMPANY, 

245  Washington  Street. 

LONDON:  CHAPMAN  AND   HALL. 

18  6  1. 


A  .5 


Entered  according  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  1861,  by 
JOSEPH     HENRY     ALLEN, 
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University  Press,  Cambridge  : 
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MY   HONOURED   TEACHER  AND   FRIEND, 

PRESIDENT      WALKER, 

LATE  OF  HARVARD  UNITERSITT,  CAMBRIDGE, 
AND    TO    THE 

REV.   JAMES    MARTINEAU, 

OF  MANCHESTER   NEW  COLLEGE,  LONDON, 

STfjfs    Volume 

IS,  BY  PERMISSION,  GRATEFULLY  INSCRIBED. 


785414 


PREFACE.  IX 

historic  Revelation.  The  divine  or  supernatural  element  is 
shown  under  terrestrial  limitations  and  conditions.  Events 
must  be  seen  on  their  human  side  to  enable  us  to  judge 
truly  of  their  Divine  side.  The  philosophy  of  History, 
rightly  apprehended,  plays  into  the  hands  of  the  philosophy 
of  Faith.  The  results  of  a  genuine  scientific  criticism  will 
be  taken  up  and  appropriated  by  that  higher  criticism 
which  deals  with  the  interior  principles  of  a  nation's  life 
and  the  grand  laws  of  historical  evolution ;  which  traces 
events  from  their  "  first  great  Cause,  least  understood,"  — 
the  fountain-head  of  special  revelations,  and  the  governing 
Force  in  human  affairs. 

Jamaica  Plain,  Massachusetts, 
January,  1861. 


CONTENTS. 

I. 

The  Patriarchs 

Page 

1 

II. 

Moses 

36 

III. 

The  Judges ■      . 

IS 

IV. 

David 

113 

V. 

Solomon 

145 

VI. 

The  Kings 

ni 

VII. 

The  Law 

208 

VIII. 

The  Prophets 

252 

IX. 

The  Captivity  ...... 

281 

X. 

The  Maccabees 

311 

XI. 

The  Alexandrians 

346 

XII. 

The  Messiah 

319 

Chronological  Outline  of  the  Later  Monarchy 

427 

Index 

431 

HEBREW  MEN  AND  TIMES 


I.   THE  PATEIARCHS. 

THE  little  country  of  Palestine  is  a  slender  strip 
of  rugged  land,  lying  between  the  desert  and  the 
sea,  divided  about  midway  from  north  to  south  by 
the  river  Jordan,  and  making  the  natural  highway 
between  Asia  and  Africa.  Its  dimensions  are  about 
those  of  Vermont,  or  Belgium.  It  was  once  very 
populous  and  fertile.  In  the  fond  language  of  He- 
brew Scripture,  it  was  "  a  land  flowing  with  milk 
and  honey  ;  a  land  of  hills  and  valleys,  drinking 
water  of  the  rain  of  heaven  :  the  glory  of  all  lands." 
Now,  it  is  mostly  sterile  and  desolate.  Its  forests 
are  hewn  down,  its  soil  washed  by  the  torrents  of  a 
thousand  winters,  its  river-courses  dried,  its  cities 
ravaged  by  centuries  of  war,  its  prosperity  blasted  by 
centuries  of  misrule.  Bare  limestone  hills,  glens 
infested  by  robbers,  scattered  ruins  of  towns  and 
villages,  regions  of-  lovely  but  forsaken  landscape, 
richly  fertile  but  half-cultivated  fields,  doubtful  rel- 
iques  and  vestiges  of  its  ancient  history  intermixed 
with  monuments  of  the  Crusader  and  the  half-civil- 


"A  THE  PATRIARCHS. 

ization  of  the  Turk,  —  these  make  the  traveller's 
report  of  what  was  fairest  in  the  splendid  realm  of 
Solomon,  and  the  scenes  of  the  ministry  of  Christ. 

But  the  character  of  the  Hebrew  race  has  given 
an  interest  to  this  country  shared  by  none  other 
under  ,  heav«u.  -  To  all  the  civilized  nations  of  the 
^eatrth  itns-  krioWn  familiarly  as  the  Holy  Land.  Its 
very  local,  names  ar^  the  dearest  symbols,  to  multi- 
'tUdes,  -of  sentiments,  memories,  and  hopes  that  have 
become  part  of  their  religious  nature.  Hebron  and 
Bethlehem,  Bethel,  Sharon,  and  Carmel,  Mount  Zion, 
the  Sea  of  Galilee,  and  the  river  Jordan,  are  the 
household  words  of  Cliristian  imagery ;  and  "  when 
David  had  taken  the  strong  rock-fort  of  Jebus,  he 
made  of  it  a  city  so  holy,  as  that  its  very  name  should 
be  music  for  ever." 

Palestine  is  in  the  main  a  high  and  hilly  region  ; 
although  its  old  name,  Chna,  or  Canaan,  is  held  to 
signify  "  the  low,"  —  i.  e.  in  comparison  with  the 
heights  of  Syria  or  Lebanon.*  From  the  "  hill- 
country  of  Judaea,"  it  slopes  gradually  towards 
Syria  at  the  north,  where  it  is  flanked  by  the  great 
mountain-range  of  Lebanon  ;  and  at  the  east  breaks 
suddenly  down  to  the  thrice-terraced  valley,  where 
the  Jordan  has  graven  its  rocky  gorge,  and  the  deep 
gulf  where  the  Dead  Sea  lies,  thirteen  hundred  feet 
below  the  Mediterranean  level.  It  is  a  land  full  of 
rugged  valleys,  glens,  and  caves,  which  mark  the 
localities  of  sacred  legend.  The  scenes  of  Mary's 
birth,  of  Gabriel's  annunciation,  of  Christ's  nativity, 
of  his  transfiguration,  and  agony  in  the  garden,  are  all 

*  Movers. 


SCENERY   OF  PALESTINE.  8 

shown  as  so  many  grottos.  The  dead  were  interred 
in  caves.  Sarah's  tomb  at  Mamre,  and  that  of  Laz- 
arus at  Bethany,  were  hollowed  in  the  rock.  A 
limestone  country  (as  the  valley  of  Virginia)  is 
sometimes  grooved  and  channelled  by  numberless 
watercourses  under  ground,  making  grotesque  and 
enormous  caverns  ;  and  the  natural  caves  of  Ca- 
naan, for  generations  the  haunt  of  half-extermi- 
nated tribes,  sheltered  the  prophets  of  Israel  from 
the  violence  of  King  Ahab,  and  David  from  the 
angry  jealousy  of  Saul.  The  "  mountains  round 
about  Jerusalem"  were  from  of  old  the  striking- 
symbol  of  Divine  protection ;  their  deep  glens  are 
Topliet,  the  valley  of  Jehoshaphat,  and  the  bed  of 
the  brook  Kedron.  Lebanon  in  the  north,  and  the 
mountains  of  Moab  and  Edom  in  the  east  and  south, 
not  only  are  great  natural  landmarks,  or  barriers, 
but,  with  their  majestic  scenery  and  wild  or  pastoral 
traditions,  they  both  make  the  imagery  of  Hebrew 
psalm,  and  fill  out  the  visions  of  Christian  fancy. 

Then  there  were  other  features,  of  landscape  or 
climate,  that  perpetually  stimulated  and  deepened 
the  religious  dread  which  seems  native  to  the  He- 
brew mind.  The  dreary  desert-boundary  is  a  more 
solemn  barrier  than  the  changing  sea  or  the  ever- 
lasting hills.  The  earthquake-wave  that  ran  between 
the  Caucasus  and  Sicily  was  often  felt  in  Palestine.* 
Swarms  of  locusts,  sudden  and  terrible,  came  like 
judgments  of  an  angry  God  :  "  fire  devouring  before 
them,  and  flame  blasting  behind ;  the  land  as  the 
garden  of  Eden  before  them,  and  behind  them  a 

*  Ewald,  Vol.  I.  p.  264. 


4  THE   PATRIARCHS. 

desolate  wilderness."  *  Malignant  local  maladies, 
pestilence,  and  the  scalding  leprosy  of  the  East,  vis- 
ited and  scourged  the  people,  subduing  them  to  the 
prophet's  vehement  appeal,  or  the  burdensome  requi- 
sition of  the  priest.  And  more  than  all,  local  mem- 
ories and  old  tradition  spoke  of  stupendous  judgments 
exercised  on  a  lewd  and  godless  people  ;  —  how  the 
cities  of  the  hot  and  fertile  plain,  which  was  "  as  the 
garden  of  the  Lord,  or  like  the  land  of  Egypt,"  for 
beauty  and  richness,  were  destroyed  suddenly  by  fire 
from  heaven,  its  mines  of  bitumen  (or  "  slime-pits  ") 
being  kindled  underneath ;  and  the  bitter  water  of 
the  salt  lake  flowed  over  them,  wherein  no  living 
thing  could  dwell,  and  where,  as  Josephus  tells, 
the  relics  of  those  old  haunts  of  profligate  luxury 
might  still  be  seen,  by  whoever  should  venture  on 
that  dreadful  sea. 

"  That  this  was  a  volcanic  region,"  says  Strabo, 
"  is  shown  by  many  proofs.  For  they  exhibit  rocks 
near  Moasas,  rugged  and  scorched,  and  clefts  in 
many  places,  and  a  soil  like  ashes  ;  and  drops  of 
pitch  trickling  from  smooth  rocks,  and  boiling 
streams  of  vile  stench,  and  dwellings  here  and 
there  tlirown  down :  so  that  one  would  credit  the 
tale  of  the  natives,  that  thirteen  cities  were  once 
inhabited  there,  Sodom,  their  metropolis,  having  a 
circuit  of  sixty  furlongs  ;  but  by  means  of  earth- 
quakes and  spoutings  forth  of  flame,  and  hot  springs 
of  pitchy  and  sulphurous  water,  the  lake  fell  on 
them,  and  their  very  stones  took  fire  ;  and  of  the 
cities  some  were  sunk,  and  from  others  those  who 

*  Joel  ii.  3. 


EARLY  INHABITANTS.  6 

were  able  fled  away.  But  Eratosthenes  says,  on  the 
contrary,  that,  being  a  lake-country,  most  of  it  was 
ingulfed  in  the  bursting  out  of  water  like  the  sea. 
Furthermore,  in  the  country  of  the  Gadarenes  is  a 
noisome  marsh,  of  which  the  cattle  that  drink  the 
water  cast  their  hair  and  hoofs  and  horns."  * 

The  Hebrew  traditions  preserve  to  us  many  traces 
of  the  aboriginal  inhabitants  of  this  land,  —  relics 
of  buried  nations,  whose  thin  ghosts  flit  across  the 
dimly-lighted  stage  of  the  early  history.  First  were 
Horites,  the  savage  tribe  indigenous  to  the  soil.  Their 
name  signifies  mountaineers,  or  dwellers  in  caves ; 
for  when  they  had  been  driven  back  by  the  Canaan- 
ites,  scanty  remnants  still  hung  about  the  caverns 
and  the  hills,  or  inhabited  the  thousand  rocky  nests 
of  the  Edomite  Mount  Seir  ;  f  and  of  these  wretched 
outlaws  the  book  of  Job  may  be  thought  to  speak : 
"  They  were  driven  forth  from  among  men,  who  cried 
after  them  as  after  a  thief,  to  dwell  in  the  cliffs  of  the 
valleys,  in  caves  of  the  earth,  and  in  the  rocks ;  .  .  . . 
wet  with  the  showers  of  the  mountains,  and  embra- 
cing the  rock  for  want  of  shelter."  J  There  were 
Rephahn,  or  Giants,  fabled  by  some  to  be  the  progeny 
of  a  breed  so  vast  that  they  had  outlived  the  flood, 
who  gave  their  name  to  the  valley  lying  westward 
from  Jerusalem.  There  were  Kadmonites,  "  Sons  of 
the  East ; "  and  Philistines,  a  relic  of  the  old  shep- 
herd race,  who  had  wandered  back  from  (j^htor,  or 
Crete ;  and  Anakim,  or  sons  of  Anak,  said  to  have 
roved    from    Babel,  —  the    terror   of  the    southern 

*  Lib.  XVI.  cap.  2.  f  Ewald.     Compare  Gen.  xxxvi.  20. 

X  Job  XXX.  5,  6 ;  xxiv.  8. 


8  '        THE   PATRIARCHS. 

Thoiigli  they  had  a  strong  mihtary  equipment,  and 
long  held  the  Israelites  at  bay  with  their  iron  char- 
iots and  disciplined  skill,  yet  in  the  main  they  pre- 
ferred the  security  of  peace  to  the  hazards  of  war. 
As  at  Laish,  "  they  dwelt  careless,  after  the  manner 
of  the  Sidonians,  quiet  and  secure."*  Their  vices, 
their  superstitions,  their  cruel  human  sacrifices,  were 
those  of  depraved  and  luxurious,  not  of  barbaric 
life.  The  five  "  cities  of  the  plain  "  were  infamous 
for  luxury  and  lack  of  vigour.  They  had  been  four- 
teen years  tributary  to  the  leagued  kings  of  Syria 
when  they  revolted,  and  their  defeat  brought  Abra- 
ham and  his  clansmen  to  the  rescue. f  When  the 
remnants  of  tliis  once  powerful  population  were 
driven  back  upon  the  northern  portion  of  the  coast, 
their  ancient  civilization  struck  deeper  root  in  the 
enterprising  and  seafaring  life  they  were  compelled 
to  follow.  Sidon,  in  the  antique  genealogy,  is  the 
eldest  son  of  Canaan.  J  Phoenicia  became  the  mother 
of  rich  colonies ;  the  source  of  arts,  commerce,  and 
letters  to  the  Greeks  ;  the  head-quarters  of  naval 
enterprise,  that  discovered  tlie  silver-mines  of  Spain 
and  the  tin  of  Cornwall,  and  circumnavigated  Africa 
about  the  time  of  Solon  ;  §  and  when  Solomon  built 
the  temple  at  Jerusalem,  he  must  go  to  Hiram,  king 
of  Tyre,  and  employ  the  resources  of  that  very  cul- 
ture whose  early  corrupted  germ  had  been  violently 
transplanted  from  Judaea  and  Jericho  and  the  valley 
of  the  Jordan. 

*  Judges  xviii.  7.  t  Genesis,  eh.  xiv. 

X  Genesis  x.  1 5.  ^  Herodotus,  IV.  42. 


FAMILY   OF   SHEM.  9 

The  Hebrews,  by  their  own  tradition,  had  their 
name  from  Eber,  the  sixth  in  the  ascending  line 
before  Abraham  ;  but  more  probably  from  the  name 
"  emigrant,"  by  which  he  was  first  known  in  Canaan. 
The  great  progenitor,  or  eponyme,  of  the  Shemitic 
stock,  including  the  Chaldee,  Arab,  and  Phoenician, 
is  Shem,  father  of  the  "  holy  races,"  and  eldest  son 
of  Noah.  The  name  signifies  "Lofty;"*  as  if,  from 
its  highland  home  in  the  mountains  of  Armenia,  this 
eldest  family  looked  down  upon  the  sons  of  Japhet 
to  the  north,  and  of  Ham  to  the  south.  God  should 
"  dwell  in  the  tents  of  Shem,"  was  the  traditionary 
blessing  pronounced  by  Noah,  the  second  great  an- 
cestor of  mankind.  From  Shem,  say  the  Mohamr 
medans,  are  descended  all  the  holy  men  and  seers : 
the  sons  of  Japhet  are  white,  but  none  among  them 
have  had  the  dignity  of  prophet ;  while  the  curse  of 
Ham,  for  his  insolent  demeanour  towards  his  father, 
has  stricken  his  descendants  black. f  Thus  antipa- 
thies of  race  find  their  explanation  and  excuse  in 
holy  legend. 

The  mountainous  and  temperate  region  of  Ar- 
menia seems  to  have  been  the  cradle  of  this  race. 
Their  traditions  make  the  Garden  of  Eden,  the  first 
earthly  Paradise,  embrace  its  two  great  rivers,  the 
Tigris  and  Euphrates ;  to  which  their  loose  geogra- 
phy appended  the  Indus  (or  Ganges)  and  the  Nile, 
as  the  circle  of  tradition  and  migration  widened 
out.J     When  the  whole  earth  had  been  flooded,  and 

*  Or,  perhaps,  the  Sun.  X  Josephus,  Antiquities,  I.  1.  4. 

t  "Weil,  Biblical  Legends.  See  also  2  Esdras  vi.  56,  and  Amos 
vii.  17. 

1* 


8  *        THE   PATRIARCHS. 

Though  they  had  a  strong  military  equipment,  and 
long  held  the  Israelites  at  bay  with  their  iron  char- 
iots and  disciplined  skill,  yet  in  the  main  they  pre- 
ferred the  security  of  peace  to  the  hazards  of  war. 
As  at  Laish,  "  they  dwelt  careless,  after  the  manner 
of  the  Sidonians,  quiet  and  secure."*  Their  vices, 
their  superstitions,  their  cruel  human  sacrifices,  were 
those  of  depraved  and  luxurious,  not  of  barbaric 
life.  The  five  "  cities  of  the  plain  "  were  infamous 
for  luxury  and  lack  of  vigour.  They  had  been  four- 
teen years  tributary  to  the  leagued  kings  of  Syria 
when  they  revolted,  and  their  defeat  brought  Abra- 
ham and  his  clansmen  to  the  rescue. f  When  the 
remnants  of  this  once  powerful  population  were 
driven  back  upon  the  northern  portion  of  the  coast, 
their  ancient  civilization  struck  deeper  root  in  the 
enterprising  and  seafaring  life  they  were  compelled 
to  follow.  Sidon,  in  the  antique  genealogy,  is  the 
eldest  son  of  Canaan.  J  Phoenicia  became  the  mother 
of  rich  colonies  ;  the  source  of  arts,  commerce,  and 
letters  to  the  Greeks  ;  the  head-quarters  of  naval 
enterprise,  that  discovered  the  silver-mines  of  Spain 
and  the  tin  of  Cornwall,  and  circumnavigated  Africa 
about  the  time  of  Solon  ;  §  and  when  Solomon  built 
the  temple  at  Jerusalem,  he  must  go  to  Hiram,  king 
of  Tyre,  and  employ  the  resources  of  that  very  cul- 
ture whose  early  corrupted  germ  had  been  violently 
transplanted  from  Judaea  and  Jericho  and  the  valley 
of  the  Jordan. 

*  Judges  xviii.  7.  t  Genesis,  eh.  xiv. 

t  Genesis  x.  15.  §  Herodotus,  IV.  42. 


FAMILY   OF   SHEM.  9 

The  Hebrews,  by  their  own  tradition,  had  their 
name  from  Eber,  the  sixth  in  the  ascending  line 
before  Abraham  ;  but  more  probably  from  the  name 
"  emigrant,"  by  which  he  was  first  known  in  Canaan. 
The  great  progenitor,  or  eponyme,  of  the  Shemitic 
stock,  including  the  Chaldee,  Arab,  and  Phoenician, 
is  Shem,  father  of  the  "  holy  races,"  and  eldest  son 
of  Noah.  The  name  signifies  "Lofty;"*  as  if,  from 
its  highland  home  in  the  mountains  of  Armenia,  this 
eldest  family  looked  down  upon  the  sons  of  Japhet 
to  the  north,  and  of  Ham  to  the  south.  God  should 
"  dwell  in  the  tents  of  Shem,"  was  the  traditionary 
blessing  pronounced  by  Noah,  the  second  great  an- 
cestor of  mankind.  From  Shem,  say  the  Mohamr 
medans,  are  descended  all  the  holy  men  and  seers : 
the  sons  of  Japhet  are  white,  but  none  among  them 
have  had  the  dignity  of  prophet ;  while  the  curse  of 
Ham,  for  his  insolent  demeanour  towards  his  father, 
has  stricken  his  descendants  black. f  Thus  antipa- 
thies of  race  find  their  explanation  and  excuse  in 
holy  legend. 

The  mountainous  and  temperate  region  of  Ar- 
menia seems  to  have  been  the  cradle  of  this  race. 
Their  traditions  make  the  Garden  of  Eden,  the  first 
earthly  Paradise,  embrace  its  two  great  rivers,  the 
Tigris  and  Euphrates ;  to  which  their  loose  geogra- 
phy appended  the  Indus  (or  Ganges)  and  the  Nile, 
as  the  circle  of  tradition  and  migration  widened 
out.if    When  the  whole  earth  had  been  flooded,  and 

*  Or,  perhaps,  the  Sun.  }  Josephus,  Antiquities,  I.  1.  4. 

t  Well,  Biblical  Legends.  See  also  2  Esdras  vi.  56,  and  Amos 
vii.  17. 

1* 


10  THE  PATRIARCHS. 

the  liuman  race  extirpated,  all  but  the  family  of  one 
just  man,  at  the  end  of  the  year  of  desolation  the 
ark  rested  on  its  sacred  mountain,  Ararat.  To  this 
day  Ararat  is  the  centre  and  religious  home  of  the 
people  of  Armenia ;  and  still,  upon  its  summit,  the 
holy  ark  is  guarded  invisibly,  say  the  inhabitants,  in 
a  spot  which  no  mortal  is  suffered  to  approach.  It 
was  among  the  children  of  Japhet  that  "  the  isles  of 
the  Gentiles  were  divided  in  their  lands,  every  one 
after  his  tongue,  after  their  families,  in  their  na- 
tions ; "  *  that  is  to  say,  the  several  countries  of 
Europe.  It  was  from  the  lawless  posterity  of  Ham 
that  Nimrod  went  forth,  "  a  mighty  hunter  before 
the  Lord,"  —  a  violent  man  and  fierce,  introduced 
in  the  Mohammedan  legends  as  the  obstinate  perse- 
cutor of  the  true  faith  in  Abraham,  until  the  Lord 
destroyed  him  by  an  assault  of  flies  ;  and  from  the 
same  cursed  brood  the  builders  of  Babylon  arose, 
who  insolently  strove  to  overtop  the  Lord's  heaven 
and  defy  a  second  flood,  until  they  were  smitten  with 
confusion  of  tongues,  and  "  scattered  abroad  from 
thence  upon  the  face  of  all  the  earth ;  and  they  left 
off  to  build  the  city."  f  It  is  with  the  family  of 
Shem  alone  that  the  sacred  history  has  to  do. 

The  genealogy  of  Shem  is  a  series  of  geographical 
names,  noting  how  that  family  spread  itself  to  the 
west  and  south,  till  it  occupied  the  belt  of  land  be- 
tween Asia  Minor  and  the  highlands  of  Cabul.  J  These 
antique  genealogies  are  cast  in  round  or  sacred  num- 

*  Genesis  x.  5.  t  Genesis  xi.  8. 

t  His  five  sons  are  Elam  (Persia),  Asshur  (Assyria),  Arphaxad  (Ar- 
menia), Lud  (Lydia),  and  Aram  (Syria).     Genesis  x.  22. 


HEBREW  MIGRATION.  11 

bers,  to  aid  the  memory,  after  the  fashion  of  the 
time  when  there  was  no  written  monument.  From 
Adam  to  Noah  are  ten  generations,  and  from  Shem  to 
Abraham  ten,  —  a  slender  thread  of  historic  recollec- 
tion serving  to  connect  the  great  epochs  of  the  Cre- 
ation, the  Deluge,  and  the  Hebrew  Migration ;  while 
the  same  tradition,  magnifying  the  distant  past,  seems 
to  have  assigned  two  hundred  and  fifty  years  as  the 
limit  of  man's  life  in  the  later  period,  five  hundred 
before  the  dispersion  of  the  tribes,  and  a  thousand 
years  for  those  primeval  generations  before  the  flood. 
Doubtless  these  barren  lists  of  names  were  in  that 
ancient  day  bead-rolls  of  sacred  legends,  or  muster- 
rolls  of  illustrious  traditions,  of  which  only  wrecks  and 
fragments  have  come  down  to  us. 

The  ten  generations  including  Abraham  mark  the 
steps  of  the  migration  that  led  the  Hebrews  to  the  bor- 
ders of  the  ''pleasant  land,"  —  a  migration  of  some 
five  hundred  miles,  and  including  not  a  single  house- 
hold only,  but  a  people,  or  at  least  a  clan.  Syrian 
tradition  makes  Abraham  the  founder,  at  any  rate 
the  king,  of  Damascus,  —  that  most  ancient  of  cities, 
which  the  Orientals  call  "  a  pearl  set  in  the  midst 
of  emeralds."  The  great  Hebrew  migration,  tend- 
ing southwestwardly  from  Armenia  towards  Egypt, 
paused  at  that  rich  and  beautiful  oasis,  that  broad 
garden  and  forest  tract  which  embosoms  "  the  great 
and  sacred  Damascus,  surpassing  every  city,"  said  Ju- 
lian, twenty-five  centuries  later,  "  in  the  beauty  of  its 
temples,  the  magnitude  of  its  shrines,  the  timeliness 
of  its  seasons,  the  limpidness  of  its  fountains,  the  vol- 
ume of  its  waters,  and  the  richness  of  its  soil."     Its 


12  THE  PATRIARCHS. 

situation  in  the  great  plain  on  the  eastern  slope  of 
Lebanon,  with  its  dense  and  picturesque  garden  or- 
chards of  all  variety  of  fruit,  its  clear  and  generous 
streams,  and  its  horizon  of  distant  mountains,  is  still 
the  delight  of  travellers  ;  and  among  the  memorials 
of  its  dateless  antiqviity,  along  with  the  scene  of  Paul's 
conversion,  and  the  Syrian  Naaman's  Abana  and 
Pharpar,  is  the  residence  of  the  patriarch  Abraham. 
The  name  of  his  servant,  "  Eliezer  of  Damascus,"  is 
a  token  of  his  sojourn  there;  as  if,  in  default  of  a 
lawful  heir,  this  ancient  city,  his  former  realm,  should 
have  inherited  his  wealth  of  herds,  silver,  and  gold. 

According  to  the  tradition  of  the  Arabs,  Abraham, 
when  an  infant,  had  to  be  hidden  (as  Moses  was)  from 
the  suspicious  rage  of  the  tyrant  Nimrod,  and  dwelt 
for  many  months  in  a  dark  cave.  When  he  first  came 
forth,  and  was  journeying  towards  Damascus,  he  saw 
the  glittering  firmament  at  night,  and  said  to  the 
brightest  star  (Gad,  or  Jupiter),  "  Thou  art  the  Di- 
vinity that  hast  sheltered  and  watched  me  in  this 
cave,  and  thee  will  I  adore."  But  presently  the  moon 
arose,  and  the  star  grew  pale  before  the  splendour  of 
her  beams  ;  and  Abraham  said,  "  Thou,  and  not  the 
star,  art  my  god."  Then  the  glory  of  the  sun  came 
forth  in  the  east,  and  all  the  living  tribes  awoke  to 
hail  the  sovereign  light  that  ruled  the  day ;  and  Abra- 
ham fell  on  his  face  and  worshipped,  and  said,  "Thou 
art  mightier  than  all,  for  before  thee  the  moon  and 
stars  liide  themselves  and  flee  away ;  thou  art  my  king 
and  my  god."  But  the  day  passed  by,  and  the  sun 
went  down  as  if  weary  in  his  course  ;  and  when  he 
was  alone,  in  darkness  and  silence,  Abraham  knew 


ABRAHAM  IN  CANAAN.  13 

that  the  Unseen  One  who  had  created  them  was 
mightier  than  all,  and  that  He  alone  was  to  be 
adored. 

Then  when  Abraham  was  seventy-five  years  old, 
"  Jehovah  said  to  him,  Get  thee  out  of  thy  country, 
and  from  thy  kindred,  and  from  thy  father's  house, 
into  a  land  that  I  will  show  thee :  and  I  will  make 
of  thee  a  great  nation,  and  I  will  bless  thee,  and 
make  thy  name  great,  and  thou  shalt  be  a  blessing : 
and  I  will  bless  them  that  bless  thee,  and  curse  him 
that  curseth  thee  ;  and  in  thee  shall  all  families  of 

the  earth  be  blessed And  Abram  took  Sarai 

his  wife,  and  Lot  his  brother's  son,  and  all  their  sub- 
stance that  they  had  gathered,  and  the  souls  that 
they  had  gotten  in  Haran  ;  and  they  went  forth  to 
go  into  the  land  of  Canaan ;  and  into  the  land  of 
Canaan  they  came."* 

Tins  pious  family  legend  is  all  the  account  we 
have  of  that  great  migration.  At  Sichem,  or  She- 
chem,  in  tlie  heart  of  the  land,  and  again  at  Beth-El 
(known  long  after  by  its  old  Canaanite  name  of  Luz, 
or  Almond-tree),  and  again  on  the  high  and  rich 
plain  of  "  Mamre,  which  is  Hebron,"  he  pitched  his 
tent  and  built  his  altar,  "  still  journeying  towards 
the  south."  Monuments  of  stone,  landmarks  or 
altars,  and  ancient  trees,  served,  long  generations 
after,  to  mark  the  various  resting-places  of  that  mi- 
gration, the  localities  of  the  patriarchal  abode.  Abra- 
ham's grove  and  altar  near  the  well  of  Sheba,  the 
"  mourning-oak "  where  Deborah,  Rebecca's  nurse, 
was  buried,  the  almond-tree  and  pile  of  stones  at 

*  Genesis,  chap.  xii. 


14  THE  PATRIARCHS. 

Bethel,  the  heap  of  salt  which  was  shown  for  many 
ages  as  the  form  of  Lot's  perished  wife,  were  similar 
monuments,  serving  to  enliven  and  perpetuate  the 
old  household  memories,  and  commemorate  that  an- 
cient protest  against  idolatry. 

For  in  Palestine,  as  in  the  region  of  the  Euphra- 
tes, was  the  universal  sun  or  star  worship  of  the  East. 
Baal  or  Bel,  the  sun-god,  whose  vast  temple,  with 
brazen  gates,  was  the  glory  of  Babylon  the  great, 
was  the  chief  deity  also  of  the  Canaanites,  who 
adored  him  with  licentious  and  cruel  rites ;  and 
the  subordinate  divinities  were  the  glittering  hosts 
of  heaven.  "  Here,  upon  the  plain  of  Mamre,  notli- 
ing  was  more  natural  than  such  worship  to  men  who, 
living  in  tents,  with  the  brilliant  sky  of  the  East  over- 
head, saw  sun  and  moon  daily  rise  behind  the  moun- 
tains of  Moab,  and  go  down  towards  the  sea,  to  let 
the  dews  descend  and  freshen  the  grass  of  the  pas- 
tures. Here  it  was  that  these  sun-worshippers  found 
among  them  the  tents  of  a  mighty  prince,  who  did 
not  worship  sun  or  star.  Here  it  was  that  Abraham 
fed  his  flocks,  both  before  and  after  his  visit  to  Egypt. 
Here,  as  he  sat  under  the  terebinth-tree  in  the  plain, 
he  could  tell  neighbour  and  guest  of  those  wonderful 
works  of  Egyptian  art,  and  astonish  the  shepherds 
of  Mamre  with  descriptions  of  the  marvels  and  hints 
of  the  mysteries  of  the  pyramids  ;  and  with  an  ac- 
count of  the  honours  with  which  he  had  been  treated 
at  Memphis.  Here  it  was  that  Sarah  died  ;  and 
within  view  of  where  we  now  stood  was  the  field 
leading  up  to  a  hill  wherein  was  a  cave  in  which 
Abraham  wished  to  bury  his  dead.     There  was  the 


HEBRON.  15 

hill  before  us,  with  the  cave  in  the  midst  of  it,  where 
the  patriarch  himself  was  afterwards  laid."* 

Thus  the  beautiful  hill-country,  some  twenty  miles 
south  of  Jerusalem,  became  the  first  home  of  the 
Hebrew  race  in  the  Holy  Land,  —  a  region  so  fertile 
and  populous  once  that  its  nestling  villages  of  stone 
lay  in  sight  of  one  another  for  a  whole  day's  journey, 
and  its  very  local  names  tell  of  plenty. f  Hebron 
was  their  earliest  sacred  city,  and  is  a  town  of  some 
importance  now  ;  —  perhaps  the  oldest  in  the  world, 
for  it  was  built,  said  the  tradition,  "  seven  years  be- 
fore Zoan  in  Egypt,"  J  one  of  the  oldest  capitals  of 
the  Delta.  It  was  for  seven  years  the  seat  of  Da- 
vid's royal  power  :  and  to  this  day  are  shown,  in  the 
ancient  burial-place,  the  sepulchres  of  the  three  great 
ancestors  of  the  race,  with  their  wives  ;  upon  the 
first  the  pious  inscription,  "  This  is  the  sepulchre  of 
our  father  Abraham,  upon  whom  be  peace  ;  "  and  so 
upon  that  of  Isaac  and  the  rest. 

To  this  hilly  southern  region  belong  the  earlier 
incidents  of  the  patriarchal  history.  Here  the  peace- 
able separation  took  place  between  Abraham  and  his 
nephew,  when  Lot  chose  his  portion  with  the  luxu- 
rious cities  of  the  plain,  depriving  his  descendants 
(Moab  and  Ammon)  of  any  hereditary  claim  to  the 
region  that  survived  their  overthrow,  and  leaving  to 

*  H.  Martineau,  "  Eastern  Travel." 

t  Thus,  Beth-lehem,  the  place  of  bread ;  Beth-page,  of  figs ;  Beth- 
any, of  dates  ;  and  Luz,  the  Almond-tree ;  —  all  clustered  near  the 
Mount  of  Olives. 

X  Numbers  xiii.  22.  According  to  Bunsen,  probably  built  by  the 
Palestinian  shepherds  (Hycsos),  about  2255  B.  C.  {Bihelwerk,  Vol. 
V.p.lll.) 


16  THE  PATRIARCHS. 

Abraham  the  highlands  and  the  shore.  Here  is  the 
scene  of  his  frequent  and  friendly  intercourse  with 
his  guardian  Deity :  and  he  had  visions  of  a  realm 
so  broad,  that  it  should  reach  "  from  the  river  of 
Egypt  unto  the  great  river,  the  river  Euphrates." 
Later  Scripture  speaks  of  him  as  "  a  pilgrim  and  a 
sojourner,"  having  only  the  promise  of  the  land  for 
his  posterity,  after  their  sorrowful  exile  of  four  hun- 
dred years  in  a  land  that  was  not  their  own.  But 
in  patriarchal  story  he  challenges  respect,  as  the 
powerful  leader  of  a  formidable  force  ;  and  his  place 
is  high  among  the  chiefs  of  Canaan.  "  Thou  art  a 
mighty  prince  among  us,"  said  the  sons  of  Heth, 
when  he  negotiated  with  them  for  a  burial-place. 
"  He  is  a  prophet,"  said  Jehovah  in  a  dream  to 
Abimelech,  "  and  shall  pray  for  thee,  and  thou  shalt 
live."  Jewish  fancy  long  after  ascribed  to  him  pro- 
found knowledge  of  chemistry,  astronomy,  and  divi- 
nation, the  instructing  of  the  Egyptians  in  mathemat- 
ical science,  and  the  invention  of  written  language ; 
and  there  have  not  been  wanting  those  who  have 
even  identified  his  name  with  Brahma,  the  Hindu 
incarnation  of  the  Infinite. 

Nor  is  the  fame  of  the  mother's  beauty  inferior  to 
that  of  the  father's  dignity.  Sarah,  "  the  princess," 
was  of  such  exceeding  loveliness  that  her  honour 
could  be  defended  only  by  a  miracle.  The  father  of 
the  faithful  himself,  as  two  difierent  narrations  tell,* 
deceived  the  king  whose  hospitality  he  shared,  by 
declaring  her  to  be  his  sister,  in  fear  of  dyhig  for  her 
sake.     The  Arabs  say  that  she  was  made  in  the  per- 

*  Genesis,  chaps,  xii.  and  xx. 


MELCHIZEDEK.  17 

feet  likeness  of  Eve,  to  whom  God  had  given  two 
thirds  of  all  beauty  ;  while  from  the  remainder  a 
third  part  was  reserved  for  the  patriarch  Joseph 
alone.  It  is  added,  that  she  was  taken  into  Egypt 
in  a  chest,  like  precious  merchandise,  to  be  hid  from 
the  eye  of  spoilers  ;  and  when  this  was  opened  by  the 
king's  order,  the  whole  land  was  brightened  with  her 
effulgence. 

From  his  journey  to  Egypt  Abraham  returned,  by 
the  king's  favour,  "  very  rich  in  cattle,  in  silver,  and 
in  gold."  When  the  five  kings  of  the  plain  were 
beaten  by  the  banded  Syrian  chieftains,  and  Lot  was 
carried  off  captive  with  them,  he  armed  more  than 
three  hundred  of  his  own  clan,  (represented  after- 
wards as  "  captains  each  of  a  countless  force,"  *)  and 
brought  back  both  prisoners  and  spoil.  As  he  passed 
near  the  Jordan  on  his  return,  Melchizedek,  "  king 
of  Salem  "  and  "  priest  of  the  Most  High  God," 
(whom  Jewish  fancy  fondly  holds  to  have  been  Shem 
himself,)  brought  forth  bread  and  wine,  and  blessed 
him  in  the  name  of  the  mighty  El,  "  possessor  of 
heaven  and  earth."  f  As  conqueror  and  deliverer, 
his  title  is  thus  sanctioned  by  the  most  venerable 
religion  of  the  soil. 

It  is  in  his  tent  at  Hebron  that  he  receives,  with 
Oriental  hospitality,  the  mysterious  messengers  who 
pass  on  with  their  message  of  doom  to  the  insolent 
inhabitants  of  Sodom  ;  and  entreats  Jehovah  face  to 
face  in  their  behalf,  and  wins  from  him  the  promise 
that  they  shall  be  spared  if  only  ten  righteous  men 
are  found  within  the  place.     Thus  in  the  boldest 

*  Josephus,  Wars,  V.  9.  4.  t  Genesis,  chap.  xiv. 


18  THE  PATKIARCHS. 

strain  of  legendary  narrative  ever  framed  are  com- 
bined the  pathos  of  a  drama  and  the  piety  of  antique 
faith.  The  vividest  possible  picture  is  presented,  both 
of  Abraham's  own  free  access  to  the  Deity,  and  of  the 
awful  and  unredeemed  depravily  of  the  Canaanitish 
race.  The  dread  Power  of  the  earthquake-convulsion 
and  the  volcanic  fire  is  a  person  in  the  dialogue,  and 
yields,  step  by  step,  to  the  powerful  intercession  of 
the  holy  man.  The  inexorably  Just  pauses  in  the 
execution  of  his  decree  ;  and,  for  Abraham's  sake, 
will  relent  on  the  easiest  terms  of  mercy,  —  sparing 
from  destruction  all  that  share  his  blood.  The  pa- 
triarch intercedes  for  a  people  that  must  finally  be 
sw^ept  away  before  his  descendants,  and  thus  lays  by 
for  them,  as  it  were,  a  claim  on  the  gratitude  of  those 
tribes,  requited  only  by  their  obstinate  hate  ;  while, 
on  the  other  hand,  the  race  doomed  to  perish  is  shown 
to  be  so  desperately  and  unredeemably  abandoned, 
that  the  "  ten  righteous  "  are  nowhere  to  be  found. 
The  work  of  vengeance  could  no  longer  be  delayed. 
The  volcanic  fire  burst  forth.  The  earthquake  swal- 
lowed the  cities  of  the  polluted  plain,  and  the  bitter 
W'aters  flowed  over  them.  "And  Abraham  gat  up 
early  in  the  morning,  to  the  place  where  he  had 
stood  before  Jehovah's  face ;  and  he  looked  towards 
Sodom  and  Gomorrah,  and  beheld,  and  lo  !  the  smoke 
of  the  country  went  up  as  the  smoke  of  a  furnace." 
Lot,  by  the  lead  of  the  two  messengers,  had  fled 
"  out  of  the  midst  of  the  overthrow,"  and  dwelt  with 
his  daughters  still  in  the  country  towards  the  east ; 
where  he  became  the  father  of  Moab  and  Ammon, 
the  two  great  tribes  of  the  hill-country  southward 


ISHMAEL.  19 

from  Damascus.  The  animosity  cherished  towards 
them  ill  after  years  by  the  tribes  of  Israel  has  its  jus- 
tifying pretext  in  the  hateful  legend  of  their  birth. 

Abraham,  meanwhile,  had  removed  from  the  near 
vicinity  of  so  frightful  a  catastrophe,  and  lived  farther 
to  the  southwest,  near  Beer-sheba,  —  the  well  con- 
secrated by  his  league  with  Abimelech,  the  local  chief. 
Here  Ishmael,  born  of  the  Egyptian  Hagar,  was  ex- 
pelled with  his  motlier  from  Abraham's  tent.  By 
the  beautiful  tradition  prevailing  through  the  East, 
the  young  boy's  life  was  saved  by  an  angel  discover- 
ing to  Hagar  a  spring  of  water  when  he  was  just  per- 
ishing with  thirst.  The  Arabs  call  the  name  of  that 
fountain  Zemzem,  from  tjie  bubbling  of  its  waters, 
and  say  it  is  in  Mecca,  their  holy  city ;  but  the  He- 
brews call  it  Beer-lahai-roi,  that  is,  the  "  Well  of  the 
Vision  of  Life."  So  Ishmael  became  a  dweller  in 
the  desert,  with  an  Egyptian  princess  for  his  bride ; 
and  was  the  father  of  those  wild  tribes  whose  hand 
has  been  against  every  man,  and  every  man's  hand 
against  them,  until  this  day. 

Still  later,  after  Sarah's  death,  from  another  bond- 
woman, Keturah,  were  born  the  fathers  of  Midian 
and  other  tribes,  that  bordered  on  and  harassed 
Israel.  And  thus,  in  purer  or  baser  degrees  of 
blood,  all  the  outlying  populations  are  traced  to 
the  great  Hebrew  stock,  by  common  descent  from 
Abraham. 

In  this  later  residence  nearer  the  great  sea,  Isaac, 
"  child  of  the  promise,"  is  born,  when  Abraham  is 
already  a  hundred  years  old.  And  here  too  is  the 
locality  of  the  touching  narrative,  which  tells  how 


20  THE   PATRIARCHS. 

the  last  and  highest  revelation  came  to  him,  deliver- 
ing him  from  the  dismal  superstition  of  human  sacri- 
fice. This,  like  the  other  illustrative  legends,  is 
told  in  a  dramatic  form,  the  persons  being  still  the 
Patriarch  and  the  Divinity.  The  sacrifice  commanded 
should  take  place  upon  Mori  ah  ;  but  a  victim  is  sud- 
denly provided  which  it  would  be  innocent  to  slay. 
The  narrative  is  a  favorite  one  with  the  family  of 
Shem.  The  Arabs  repeat  and  enlarge  it ;  telling 
it  of  Ishmael  instead  of  Isaac,  and  adding,  that  an 
invisible  band  of  brass  guarded  the  child's  throat 
when  the  father  thrice  attempted  to  cut  it  with 
a  knife.  The  New  Testament  writers  quote  it, 
moreover,  as  the  glorious  example  of  obedience. 
Doubtless  it  was  urged,  if  not  cast  in  its  present 
form,  by  the  prophets  when  they  strove  to  wean  the 
people  from  the  rites  of  Canaanite  idolatry.  The 
lesson  they  would  enforce  is  this,  —  that  the  holy 
family  was  even  thus  early  emancipated  from  that 
darkest  and  bloodiest  superstition  of  the  tribes  among 
whom  they  dwelt ;  and  the  event  of  such  deliver- 
ance they  recount  in  this  pathetic  tradition  of  a 
sacrifice  commanded,  and  fulfilled  in  a  gentler  form, 
upon  the  very  spot  where  their  glorious  temple  and 
altar  should  long  after  stand. 

It  is  the  antique  type  of  pastoral  life,  as  conceived 
in  the  popular  imagination,  or  made  familiar  by  many 
generations  of  household  tradition,  that  we  find  re- 
flected in  this  narrative  of  the  patriarchal  times. 
The  history  of  a  people  is  cast  in  tlie  form  of  do- 
mestic traditions  respecting  a  single  family  group. 
Abraham  is  the  mighty  and  venerable  father,  feared 


ISAAC.  21 

and  honoured  by  the  inhabitants  of  the  land  to  which 
he  migrates.  His  character  is  holy  and  austere  ;  his 
intercourse  direct  with  God.  The  type  given  in  our 
simpler  history  is  exaggerated  by  after  reverence ; 
and  the  halo  with  which  religious  fancy  invests  this 
venerable  name  is  reflected  upon  the  shadows  of  the 
invisible  world.  A  region  of  Paradise  was  called 
"  Abraham's  bosom,"  whither  the  faithful  were 
borne  by  angels  to  repose  in  bliss.  Still  another 
Jewish  legend  is,  that,  when  the  Lord  said  to  Mes- 
siah, "  Sit  thou  on  my  right  hand,"  Abraham  was 
grieved,  and  said,  "  My  son's  son  sits  on  thy  right 
hand,  and  I  on  thy  left  hand."  But  the  Lord  re- 
plied, "  Tliy  son's  son  sits  indeed  on  my  right  hand, 
and  I  on  thy  right  hand :  "  so  Abraham  was  com- 
forted.* In  his  life,  too,  we  have  another  series  of 
round  or  sacred  numbers.  His  age  was  a  hundred 
years  when  Isaac  was  born  to  him ;  and  seventy-five 
years  later  he  died,  having  dwelt  just  a  century  in 
the  Holy  Land. 

"  If  few  could  aspire  to  be  like  Abraham,  it  were 
to  be  wished  that  all  might  be  as  Isaac."  He  was 
the  promised  and  gentle  child,  who  went  willingly  as 
a  lamb  to  the  sacrifice.  He  was  the  peaceable  and 
prosperous  man,  who  "  sowed  in  the  land,  and  re- 
ceived in  the  same  year  an  hundred-fold."  The  joy 
at  his  birth  is  signified  in  the  perpetual  play  upon  his 
name,  which  means  "  laughter."  f  His  life  is  made, 
as  it  were,  only  a  paler  reflection  of  his  father's.  He 
sets  out  to  go  (like  him)  into  Egypt,  to  avoid  a  fam- 

*  Bertholdt,  "  De  Usu  Philonis." 

t  Genesis  xvii,  17  ;  xviii.  12 ;  xxi.  6,  9  ;  xxvi.  8. 


22  THE   PATRIARCHS. 

iiie,  but  is  withheld.  As  with  his  father,  neighbouring 
herdsmen  covet  his  wealth,  and  strive  for  liis  well ; 
and  he  does  not  "  reprove,"  or  demand  a  treaty,  but 
yields  unresistingly.  Like  him,  too,  he  denies  his 
wife,  lest  her  beauty  should  bring  him  into  danger. 
For  him  the  eldest  servant  of  Abraham's  house  is 
sent  to  the  family  home,  in  the  far  eastern  country 
he  had  left,  and  brings  back  Rebekah,  —  the  legend- 
ary type  of  the  modestly-consenting  bride,  —  from 
tending  sheep  and  watering  camels  in  the  pastoral 
scenes  of  that  region.  When  his  eyes  grow  dim,  so 
that  he  cannot  see,  his  gentle  and  unsuspicious  tem- 
per yields  to  the  simple  deceit  practised  by  his  wife 
and  younger  son  ;  and  Jacob,  instead  of  Esau,  wdns 
the  patriarchal  benediction.  And  the  narrative  there- 
after leaves  him  utterly  without  mention  until  his 
death,  at  the  age  of  a  hundred  and  eighty  years. 

One  more  step  of  the  genealogy  narrows  it  down  to 
the  family  of  Israel.  Esau,  the  elder  brother,  was 
the  more  bold,  frank,  and  generous  man ;  but,  of 
hasty  and  scornful  temper,  he  "  sold  his  birthright 
for  a  mess  of  pottage,"  and  imbittered  his  mother's 
heart  by  marrying  out  of  the  sacred  family.  Enraged 
at  his  brother's  fraud,  he  threatened  to  kill  him  as 
soon  as  the  days  should  come  of  mourning  for  his 
father  Isaac.  But  Jacob  fled.  Esau  —  already  more 
tlian  half  an  alien  by  his  wilder  tastes  and  idolatrous 
alliances  —  went  ''  to  live  among  the  eagles"  in  their 
rocky  nests  about  Mount  Hor  ;  and  that  wild  region 
of  ravines  and  crags,  lying  across  the  rough  valley 
that  runs  from  the  Dead  Sea  to  the  Gulf  of  Akaba, 
became  the  home  of  the  indomitable  race  of  Edom. 


ESAU  AND  JACOB.  23 

Here  Esau,  their  progenitor,  dwelt  (according  to  the 
genealogy)  side  by  side  with  the  remnants  of  the  Hor- 
ites  that  had  been  driven  out  from  Canaan  long  be- 
fore.* Here  grew  up  the  astonishing  city  of  Selah, 
or  Petra,  bosomed  completely  in  the  craggy  hills,  yet 
containing  elaborate  temples,  and  thousands  of  habi- 
tations hollowed  in  the  crumbling  rock.  To  this  wild 
region  belong  the  names  and  the  magnificent  scenery 
of  the  Book  of  Job.f  From  Esau,  in  one  line  of  de- 
scent, sprang  Amalek,  signifying  the  alliance  of  Edom 
with  that  wild  desert  tribe,  or,  as  some  think,  their 
real  ancestry.  Thus  our  narrative  connects  the  last 
of  the  bordering  and  hostile  races  in  the  common 
descent ;  while  acknowledging,  half  reluctantly,  the 
earlier  right  and  nobler  temper  of  that  tribe,  which, 
at  a  later  day,  Israel  was  glad  to  call  his  "  brother 
Edom."  J 

From  this  point  of  separation  the  history  follows 
only  that  group  of  twelve  confederate  tribes,  or  clans, 
known  by  the  collective  name  of  Israel.  Jacob,  the 
younger  son  of  Isaac,  is  the  type  and  progenitor  of 
this  race.  His  double  name  expresses  that  character 
of  dualism,  or  duplicity,  which  has  from  the  first 
distinguished  them,  —  in  their  own  traditions,  as 
well  as  in  the  respect  had  of  them  among  other 
nations. 

■  Jacob  is  "the  Supplanter," — the  wrestler,  who, 
when  he  is  thrown,  gets  his  antagonist  by  the  heel, 

*  Genesis  chap,  xxxvi. 

t  Possibly  our  one  monument  of  the  Edomitic  branch  of  the  sacred 
family. 

J  Deuteronomy  xxiii.  7. 


24  THE  PATRIARCHS. 

and  by  obstinate  stratagem  wins  the  day.  He  is  the 
younger  brother,  who  cheats  the  elder,  dupes  his 
Wind  father,  and  outwits  his  uncle  Laban  in  a  run- 
ning game  of  shepherd-craft  lasting  twenty  years. 
His  course  represents  the  secular  and  unheroic  side 
of  the  patriarchal  life.  It  is  a  series  of  struggles,  of 
craft  or  strength.  His  toilsome  journey,  in  flight  for 
his  life  ;  his  dispute  with  the  shepherds,  and  athlete 
strength  in  removing  the  stone  from  the  well's  mouth  ; 
his  bargain  with  Laban,  and  long  delay  in  obtaining 
his  loved  and  promised  bride  ;  the  contentions  of 
his  wives  ;  his  adroit  tricks  of  herdsmanship,  which 
a  Jew  would  recount  with  such  infinite  relish  ;  *  his 
escape  from  Laban,  and  the  affair  of  the  teraphim, — 
are  all  so  many  passages  of  that  struggle,  in  which 
he  perpetually  comes  off  victor.  Gaining  power  and 
wealth  during  his  long  residence  in  the  ancient  fam- 
ily home,  he  heads  the  second  great  migration  into 
Canaan, —  the  several  tribes  being  already  repre- 
sented by  the  sons  born  to  him  in  Haran. 

Israel  is  the  Prince  of  God,  who  "  as  a  prince  has 
wrestled  mightily  with  God  (in  the  night  visions)  and 
prevailed.''  His  solemn  introduction  to  the  promised 
land  is  by  "  two  hosts  "  of  angels.  The  names  Malia- 
naim,  or  "  Hosts,"  Galeed,  the  "  Heap  of  Witness," 
Peniel,  the  "  Face  of  God,"  and  Succoth,  "  the  Tents," 

"  Where  he  saw 
The  fields  pavilioned  with  his  guardians  bright," 

recall  some  of  the  most  beautiful  and  impressive  mem- 
ories of  the  patriarchal  story.     He  hears  the  renewal 

*  So  Shylock,  in  "  The  Merchant  of  Venice,"  Act  I.  Sc.  3. 


RETURN   OF   JACOB.  25 

of  the  magnificent  promise  made  to  Abraham,  "Thou 
shalt  spread  abroad  to  the  west  and  to  the  east,  and 
to  the  north  and  to  the  south,  and  in  thee  and  in  thy 
seed  shall  all  the  families  of  the  earth  be  blessed. '^ 
He  returns  to  settle  at  Shechem,  in  the  heart  of  the 
land,  and  builds  an  altar  at  Bethel,  to  commemorate 
the  glorious  and  comforting  vision  that  had  cheered 
his  exile,  of  "  a  ladder  set  up  on  the  earth,  and  the 
top  of  it  reached  to  heaven ;  and  behold,  the  angels 
of  God  ascending  and  descending  on  it !  "  With 
his  staff  he  passed  over  Jordan,  and  has  become  two 
bands.  He  went  out  as  a  solitary  wanderer,  with  a 
stone  for  his  pillow  on  the  bare  heath  of  Bethel,  and 
now  comes  back  with  the  state  and  fortune  of  an  in- 
dependent prince.  His  return,  as  chief  of  a  great 
migration,  is  a  continual  triumph,  after  the  first  three 
days,  when  he  steals  secretly  away  from  keeping  La- 
ban's  cattle.  His  wily  uncle,  foiled  in  his  own  game 
of  exaction  and  deceit,  follows  him  up  with  a  great 
company,  but  is  warned  in  a  dream,  before  he  over- 
takes him,  to  have  not  a  word  to  say  to  him,  "  good 
or  bad."  Rachel  baffles  her  father's  search  for  the 
household  gods,  whose  images  she  has  stolen ;  so  that 
he  gets  the  advantage  of  the  theft  without  the  crime, 
and  bears  with  him  the  peculiar  blessing  of  the  ances- 
tral hearth.  And  finally,  he  is  able  to  build  the  "  heap 
of  witness,"  as  a  sign  of  the  treaty  he  has  made  with 
Laban,  that  neither  shall  hereafter  cross  that  boun- 
dary with  a  hostile  force. 

Nay,  more.  When  he  hears  that  Esau,  with  his 
numerous  troop,  is  coming  to  meet  him,  he  is  struck 
with  terror,  and  a  sort  of  contrition  ;  and  hastens  to 

2 


26  THE  PATRIARCHS. 

offer  him  a  rich  present,  with  all  the  marks  of  honour 
due  to  him  as  the  first-born.  Thus  he  acknowledges, 
freely  and  obsequiously,  the  birthright  won  from  Esau 
by  fraud  and  lies,  and  says,  with  even  slavish  hom- 
age, "  These  are  to  find  grace  in  the  sight  of  my  lord : 
receive  my  present  at  my  hand,  for  therefore  I  have 
seen  thy  face,  as  though  I  had  seen  the  face  of  God.'' 
But  this  evident  feeling  of  retribution  in  the  narra- 
tive opens  the  way  to  still  further  triumph.  Esau 
not  only  met  him  generously  and  kindly,  and  "  fell 
on  his  neck  and  kissed  him,"  but  yielded  of  his  own 
accord  the  rich  plains  of  Canaan,  which  he  was  strong 
enough  to  contest  with  him  by  force,  and  retreated 
peaceably  to  his  Mount  Seir  in  the  wilderness,  where 
he  continued  the  chieftain  of  the  tribe  that  had  their 
dwelling  "  in  the  clefts  of  the  rocks,  and  in  the  tops 
of  the  ragged  rocks." 

Coming  thus  as  a  prince,  and  as  an  acknowledged 
independent  force  into  the  land  of  his  inheritance,  Ja- 
cob established  himself  near  Shechem,  Abraham's  first 
resting-place,  some  fifty  miles  farther  north  than  his 
father's  home  at  Hebron.  And  when  he  journeyed, 
"  the  terror  of  God  was  upon  the  cities  that  were 
round  about;"  for  his  sons  were  strong-handed  and 
crafty  men,  and  bloodily  they  had  avenged  themselves 
upon  the  town  whose  chief  offered  insult  to  their  sis- 
ter. By  the  massacre  at  Shechem,  the  patriarchal 
family  sets  its  stamp  of  reprobation  upon  the  proposed 
alliance,  and  the  fusion  of  the  races.  It  is  a  rehearsal 
of  the  scene  of  the  Conquest.  The  first  aggression  is 
duly  shown  to  be  on  the  part  of  the  Canaanites ;  and 
the  bloody  stain  can  be  expiated  only  by  the  extirpa- 


ISRAEL  IN  CANAAN.  27 

tion  of  one  or  the  other  house.  Thus  Jacob,  as  he 
afterwards  recounts,  is  no  peaceable  settler,  like  his 
fathers,  but  has  "wrested"  his  possession  "out  of 
the  hand  of  the  Amorite,  with  his  sword  and  with 
his  bow."* 

It  only  remained  to  consecrate  his  new  acquisition 
to  his  ancestral  faith.  The  teraphim,  or  household 
gods,  that  Rachel  had  brought  from  Padan-Aram,  with 
all  the  ear-rings  that  were  in  the  ears  of  his  house- 
hold, he  solemnly  buried  under  the  oak  at  Shechem, 
and  built  at  Bethel  an  altar  and  pillar  to  "  El,  the 
God  of  Israel."  f 

This  series  of  events  leaves  Jacob  in  peaceable 
possession  of  a  secure  position  and  considerable 
power  in  Canaan.  Whether  a  family  or  a  people, 
Israel  is  now  in  apparently  full  enjoyment  of  liis 
inheritance.  But  the  moral  of  his  wrestling  with 
that  mysterious  phantom  of  the  night,  at  Peniel  be- 
yond Jordan,  was  to  be  manifest  in  his  history,  and 
the  history  of  his  race.  That  conflict  had  left  him 
lame,  and  "  halting  upon  his  thigh  ; "  yet  with  the 
richer  heritage  of  the  future,  and  the  title  of  a 
prince  of  God.  What  man  has  won  from  man,  by 
the  strength  of  his  hand  or  the  cunning  of  his  brain, 
he  must  win  again,  as  it  were,  from  the  invisible 
powers  of  his  life,  in  conflict  with  secret  pain  and 
grief.  Touchingly  is  this  moral  told  in  the  later 
history  of  Jacob.  His  sons  gave  him  deep  shame, 
by  their  quarrels  and  violent  revenge  and  profligate 
deeds.  Rachel,  his  best  beloved,  mother  of  his  two 
youngest   sons,  died,  and  was  buried  at  Bethlehem- 

*  Genesis,  chap,  xxxiv.  and  xlviii.  22.  t  Ibid.,  chap.  xxxv. 


28  THE  PATRIARCHS. 

on  the  way  to  Hebron.  When  he  had  gathered  up 
his  heart  upon  his  favourite  boy,  he  both  injured  the 
child's  open  innocence  by  mischievous  partiahty,  and 
brought  upon  him  his  brothers'  jealous  hate  ;  so  that, 
when  Joseph  went  to  visit  them  in  the  field,  they 
*'  stripped  him  of  his  coat,  his  coat  of  many  colours, 
that  was  on  him,  and  they  took  him  and  cast  him  into 
a  pit,"  to  die  there,  and  finally  sold  him  for  a  slave  to 
a  caravan  of  Midianite  traders  that  were  going  into 
Egypt.  "  And  Jacob  rent  his  clothes,  and  put  sack- 
cloth upon  his  loins,  and  mourned  for  his  son  many 
days :  and  all  his  sons  and  all  his  daughters  rose  up 
to  comfort  him  ;  but  he  refused  to  be  comforted,  and 
he  said.  For  I  will  go  down  into  the  grave  unto  my 
son  mourning.     Thus  his  father  wept  for  him." 

By  this  most  beautiful  of  all  relations  of  domestic 
grief,  the  Hebrew  narrative  guides  the  events  of 
Jacob's  life  upon  the  broader  stage  of  history,  which 
the  race  is  henceforth  to  occupy.  It  was  needful  for 
them,  as  had  been  already  revealed  (they  said)  to 
Abraham,  that  they  "  should  first  be  strangers  in  a 
strange  land  that  was  not  theirs,  and  should  serve 
them,  and  they  should  afflict  them  four  hundred 
years."  As  Abraham  and  Isaac  had  each  by  reason 
of  famine  gone  up  (in  fact  or  intention)  to  the  la 
of  Egypt,  so  the  whole  race  of  Israel  must  go  up 
thither,  and  for  the  same  cause,  before  they  could 
return  and  take  the  land  of  Canaan  for  their  lasting 
possession.  Such  was  the  religious  necessity,  as  con- 
ceived long  after  in  the  Hebrew  mind.  But  there 
was  a  deeper  historic  necessity ;  since  the  residence 
in  Egypt  was  needful  for  those  germs  of  character 


JOSEPH    AND    HIS    BEETHREN.  29 

and  culture  which  made  the  Hebrews  what  they 
were,  and  rendered  their  after  evolution  possible. 

This  decisive  event  in  the  history,  as  represented 
in  their  Scripture,  God  brought  about  in  his  own 
way,  overruling  the  hatred  and  ill-treatment  of 
Joseph's  brethren  to  his  own  glory  and  their  great 
advantage.  For  when,  twenty  years  after  the  crime 
was  wrought,  they  went  up  to  Egypt  to  buy  corn  for 
themselves  and  their  families,  that  they  might  not 
die,  the  discreet  and  powerful  viceroy  of  that  splen- 
did monarchy,  before  whom  they  prostrated  them- 
selves so  humbly,  was  their  own  despised  and  long- 
lost  brother.  With  infinite  skill,  Judah,  afterwards 
the  proud  rival  of  the  family  of  Joseph  on  the  soil 
of  Palestine,  is  made  to  intercede  in  behalf  of  the 
suppliant  house.  With  infinite  tenderness  Joseph 
soothes  his  brothers'  self-reproach  by  showing  how 
Providence  has  wrought  their  crime  towards  him 
into  a  blessing  upon  them  all ;  then  satisfies  the 
prompting  of  his  own  generous  heart,  settling  them 
on  the  rich  border-land  of  Egypt  that  looks  towards 
Arabia  and  Palestine,  as  guardsmen  of  the  frontier, 
and  keepers  of  Pharaoh's  herds. 

The  traditions  say  that  Jacob  had  wept  himself 
Wind  with  grief  at  Joseph's  loss  ;  and  that,  when  his 
brothers  knew  his  safety,  they  did  not  venture  to 
bring  him  the  tidings,  lest  he  should  die  from  excess 
of  joy.  But  Sarah,  the  young  daughter  of  Asher,* 
sat  at  her  grandfather's  knee,  and  took  a  harp,  and 
sang  a  pleasant  chant  of  Joseph's  loss,  and  his  chang- 
ing fortunes,  and  his  great  glory  in  the  realm  of 

*  Her  name  is  preserved  in  Numbers  xxvi.  46. 


30  THE  PATRIARCHS. 

Egypt ;  "  and  Jacob's  heart  fainted,  for  he  believed 
it  not.  And  they  told  him  all  the  words  of  Joseph, 
which  he  said  to  them ;  and  when  he  saw  the  wag- 
gons which  Joseph  had  sent  to  carry  him,  the  spirit 
of  Jacob  their  father  revived ;  and  Israel  said.  It  is 
enough ;  Joseph  my  son  is  yet  alive  ;  I  will  go  and 
see  him  before  I  die." 

How  fondly  the  Hebrew  narrative  dwelt  on  the 
magnificent  contrast  of  Joseph's  fortunes,  and  told 
over  the  course  of  innocence  and  integrity  by  which, 
from  his  humble  condition  as  a  slave,  as  a  prisoner 
and  as  keeper  of  the  prison,  he  had  risen  to  be  the 
great  executive  officer  of  the  kingdom,  and  the  sav- 
iour of  a  whole  people  from  starvation  ;  through  what 
fiery  trials  his  virtue  passed  unscathed  ;  how  nobly 
and  kindly  he  had  dealt  by  all  he  came  in  contact 
with ;  how  magnanimous  and  tender  was  his  de- 
meanour towards  his  brothers, — there  is  no  need  to 
tell.  Joseph  becomes  the  fourth  great  patriarch  of 
the  Hebrew  history.  Though  not  the  father,  he  is 
the  deliverer  and  guardian  of  the  entire  race ;  and, 
through  his  two  sons,  the  inheritor  of  a  double  por- 
tion in  the  Promised  Land.  So  sacred  was  his  mem- 
ory, that  it  was  their  oath,  religiously  fulfilled,  to 
carry  his  bones  with  them  whenever  they  should  re- 
turn and  take  possession,  and  bury  them  in  the 
ground  that  Jacob  had  bought  at  Shechem,  where 
pious  tradition  guards  his  sepulchre  until  this  day. 

Such,  in  brief  outline,  is  the  account  we  have  of 
this  most  critical  event  of  the  Hebrew  destinies, — 
the  transferring  of  Israel  and  his  fortunes  to  Egypt. 
It  was  an  event  indispensable  for  their  culture,  and 


EGYPT.  31 

most  significant  for  their  whole  later  history,  —  an 
event  wholly  essential  to  the  after  type  of  Hebrew 
nationality,  one  which  saved  it  from  being  merged 
undistinguishably  among  the  petty  populations  of 
Canaan. 

Egypt  then,  as  Athens  and  Rome  at  a  later  day, 
was  the  educator  of  nations.  To  her  Greece  owed 
its  first  germs  of  culture,  and  its  first  civilizing 
colonies.  The  hierarchy  of  the  narrow  Nile  valley, 
with  its  immensely  fertile  and  comparatively  well- 
ordered  domain,  and  its  stupendous  temples  and 
public  monuments,  ofifered  every  attraction  of  wealth, 
astonishing  works,  and  ancient  wisdom.  By  its  riches 
it  tempted  conquest ;  by  its  secret  arts,  and  the  fame 
of  its  knowledge,  it  invited  the  curious  to  become 
its  pupils.  And,  furthermore,  it  offered  now  the 
example  of  peace  and  plenty,  together  with  a  degree 
of  social  order  hitherto  unknown.  For  when  the 
famine  had  put  the  people  utterly  into  the  hands  of 
the  king,  he  easily  availed  himself  of  the  advantage 
of  his  position  to  bring  about  that  condition  of  things 
which  regal  policy  most  desires.  His  forethought,  by 
Joseph's  prompting,  had  already  stored  by  vast  gran- 
aries while  there  was  plenty  ;  and  now  the  sagacious 
exile-statesman,  to  insure  the  benefits  of  a  strong 
central  power,  exacted  such  conditions  of  supply, 
that  the  entire  population  became  retainers  of  the 
king.  The  whole  wealth  and  effective  power  of  the 
country  were  in  the  monarch's  grasp  alone,  while 
the  people  dwelt  in  cities.* 

This  great  social  revolution  is  ascribed  to  the 
*  Genesis  xlvii.  20,  21.    See  Blackstone,  Vol.  11.  p.  51. 


32  THE   PATRIARCHS. 

energy  and  foresight  of  Joseph  alone,  —  a  revolu- 
tion, if  it  were  indeed  the  work  of  Hebrew  hands, 
bitterly  felt  afterwards  by  the  Hebrew  people.  The 
entire  theocratic  organization  of  Egypt,  by  this  ac- 
count,— at  least  the  social  despotism  it  brought  about, 
—  should  be  the  work  of  their  exile-patriarch. 

But  here  a  faint  side-light  from  other  sources 
strikes  across  the  track  of  our  history.  The  Hycsos, 
or  Shepherd  dynasty,  said  Manetho,  had  subdued  the 
Egyptian  monarchy,  and  held  the  land  under  their 
sway  for  about  five  hundred  years ;  "  burning  down 
the  cities  and  demolishing  the  temples  of  the  gods." 
That  they  were  a  tribe  kindred  with  the  Hebrews 
has  long  been  thought;  and  even  that  they  might 
be  the  very  children  of  Israel,  but  that  this  would 
too  completely  contradict  the  only  clear  account  we 
have.  The  Jews,  at  any  rate,  have  claimed  their 
kinship  and  hinted  their  identity.  "  The  Egyptians,'* 
says  Josephus,*  "  took  many  occasions  to  hate  us  and 
envy  us,  because  our  ancestors  had  had  dominion 
over  their  country."  Perhaps  statements  so  wholly 
at  variance  as  we  find  with  regard  to  this  event 
cannot  be  fully  reconciled ;  yet,  assuming  that  it  is 
one  event  they  all  refer  to,  the  following  seems  the 
simplest  and  clearest  outline  of  it  that  we  can 
trace. 

Tlie  long  dynasty  of  the  Shepherds  —  a  Phoenician 
or  Palestinian  tribe  —  seems  to  have  some  connec- 
tion with  the  frequent  reference  made  to  Egypt 
in  the  course  of  the  patriarchal  history.  As  nearly 
as  the  chronology  can  be  made  out,  the  conquest  of 

*  Against  Apion,  ch.  25. 


THE  HYCSOS.  33 

that  country  by  the  Shepherds  was  not  far  from  the 
assumed  time  of  Abraham's  migration ;  as  if  both 
were  parts  of  one  great  movement  of  the  Asiatic 
tribes  upon  the  West ;  *  and  as  if  the  wealth  which 
Abraham  carried  away  from  Egypt  were  part  of  the 
spoils  of  that  invasion. f  The  alien  dynasty  must 
long  have  found  its  footing  insecure,  and  would 
naturally,  in  the  course  of  time,  seek  to  accommo- 
date itself  to  the  elder  theocratic  institutions  of  the 
land.  In  this  it  gladly  employed  the  wise  co-opera- 
tion of  the  exiled  Hebrew  chieftain. J  Embracing 
such  an  occasion  as  that  afforded  by  the  famine  to 
strengthen  its  hold  upon  the  soil  and  people  of 
Egypt,  it  would  welcome  the  aid  that  was  ofiered 
by  the  stalwart  and  formidable  forces  of  his -Shepherd 
brethren, — already  a  terror  to  the  Canaanitish  tribes, 
—  who  were  summoned  by  his  influence,  and  settled 
in  Goshen,  as  defenders  of  the  frontier  against  fresh 
invasion. 

In  the  course  of  a  few  generations  after  the  settle- 
ment of  Israel  upon  Egyptian  soil,  the  native  kings 
of  that  country  (who  had  hitherto  mauitained  them- 
selves in  the  district  of  Thebes  and  Upper  Egypt) 
succeeded  in  expelling  the  invaders ;  and  "  another 
king  arose,  who  knew  not  Joseph,"  commencing  the 
eighteenth   dynasty  of  Manetho.     The   majority  of 

*  See  Pococke's  "  India  in  Greece." 

t  This  conjecture  is  fortified  by  what  we  learn  of  Abraham's  nu- 
merous slaves,  especially  the  Egyptian  Hagar. 

J  A  monument  of  Sesortosis  I.  (B.  C.  2755)  alluding  to  a  famine, 
and  the  statement  of  Herodotus  (II.  409)  that  Sesostris  divided  the 
lands  of  Egypt,  lead  Bunsen  to  place  the  administration  of  Joseph  at 
that  date,  and  to  make  the  Egyptian  exile  endure  fourteen  centuries. 
2*  C 


34  THE  PATRIARCHS. 

the  alien  race  were  driven  out,  and  became  the 
kindred  and  bordering  tribes  of  Edom,  Moab,  and 
Ammon  ;  while  those  who  remained,  constituting  the 
family  of  Israel,  were  more  and  more  reduced  to  the 
condition  of  slavery  as  the  native  dynasty  extended 
itself  farther  down  upon  the  territory  of  the  Delta. 
Still,  however,  they  retained  traces  of  their  moun- 
tain blood,  and  the  bolder  daring  of  the  earlier  time. 
The  Egyptian  historians,  treating  them  as  an  unclean 
and  leprous  caste,  recount  their  revolt  and  brief  rule 
under  Moses,  and  their  final  expulsion  into  the  wil- 
derness towards  Syria.  And  in  their  own  narrative 
the  same  qualities  of  the  race  are  shown,  as  fitting 
them  for  the  same  great  enterprise.  After  their  four 
centuries  of  Egyptian  service,  when  the  centralizing 
hierarchy  pressed  despotically  upon  their  independ- 
ence, and  the  quarrel  became  inexpiable,  we  find 
this  warrior-tribe,  fully  armed  and  equipped,  ready 
to  march  over  the  border  to  the  reconquest  of  their 
native  Canaan. 

Whether  this,  or  something  like  it,  was  the  train 
of  events  which  we  discern  so  dimly  through  the 
beautiful  domestic  narrative  of  the  Hebrews,  we 
cannot  tell  with  any  certainty.  It  may  be  only  one 
among  the  many  fruitless  conjectures  that  have  been 
framed,  to  weave  in  the  thread  of  sacred  legend 
with  the  web  of  secular  history.  But  the  suggesting 
of  it,  together  with  the  introduction  of  the  Egyptian 
Pharaohs  upon  the  stage,  shows  that  we  have  come 
into  a  new  period.  Henceforth,  the  narrative  comes 
before  tlie  light  of  the  world,  and  its  scenes  are  in 
the  sight  of  nations.     Patriarchal  history,  which  is 


BOOK   OF   GENESIS.  35 

but  the  casting  of  historical  events  into  the  pictu- 
resque and  dramatic  form  of  family  tradition,  be- 
comes merged  in  the  broader  stream  that  embraces 
the  institutions  and  life  of  a  nation,  and  events  acted 
out  on  the  theatre  of  the  world. 

A  single  word  as  to  the  sources  of  the  narrative 
that  has  now  been  presented.  As  soon  as  we  apply 
to  this  primitive  cycle  of  events  the  usual  principles 
of  historical  criticism,  and  judge  of  these  traditions 
as  we  do  those  of  other  nations,  we  find  ourselves  in 
possession  of  most  precious,  but  fragmentary,  relics 
of  that  remote  and  obscure  Past.  We  cannot  hope 
to  read  it  all  into  accurate  and  coherent  history. 
But  if  we  have  only  the  smallest  remnants  of  the 
world's  most  ancient  poetry  ;  if  only  the  faint  reflec- 
tion of  that  primitive  way  of  life  ;  if  only  the  tra- 
ditions of  the  shepherd's  tent  or  the  Hebrew  watch- 
fire,  dwelling  fondly  on  the  memory  of  ancestors  so 
pious  and  so  noble,  —  even  at  this  estimate,  we  have, 
in  the  Book  of  Genesis,  the  most  unique  and  precious 
inheritance  of  all  the  remoter  past ;  and  our  grati- 
tude cannot  be  too  great  for  the  pious  care  and  rev- 
erence with  which  it  has  been  guarded  through  so 
many  ages :  especially,  when  it  is  considered  that 
here  we  have  the  half-hid  and  mysterious  sources  of 
that  stream  of  purer  faith  which  widened  afterwards 
into  "  the  river  of  the  water  of  life,"  to  heal  and 
bless  all  nations. 


II.    MOSES. 

MOSES  is  the  great  representative  man  of  the  He- 
brew people,  —  by  far  the  greatest  man  of  that 
race.  He  is  one  of  the  very  few  men  in  the  history  of 
the  world  who  have  moulded  from  the  first  the  insti- 
tutions and  character  of  an  entire  people.  Working 
first  upon  that  unique  and  peculiar  raoe,  from  whom 
we  have  received  our  inheritance  of  religious  thought, 
he  has  stamped  more  deeply  than  all  other  men  of 
antiquity  the  mark  of  his  own  mind  upon  the  ideas, 
language,  and  customs  of  the  modern  world.  Of  all 
the  men  of  history  he  is  perhaps  the  clearest  exam- 
ple of  a  Providential  Man. 

As  usual,  the  traditions  of  Jew  and  Mussulman 
Lave  been  busy  with  this  great  name.  He  was  so 
holy  a  man,  they  said,  that  he  knew  only  by  their 
names  the  passions  other  men  are  subject  to,  having 
never  felt  the  like  himself;  and  God  determined  that 
the  age  to  which  he  might  live  should  fix  the  ex- 
treme limit  of  human  life.  His  birth  was  announced 
long  beforehand  by  astrologers  to  the  Egyptian  king, 
as  the  birth  of  one  who  should  prove  the  ruin  of  that 
monarchy ;  and  it  was  watched  for  so  cruelly,  that 
seven  thousand  Hebrew  infants  were  slain,  in  the 
hope  that  he  might  perish  with  them.     And  when 


TRADITIONS.  37 

the  king  was  won  by  his  daughter's  supplication  to 
spare  the  beautiful  infant,  and  adopt  it  as  his  heir, 
he  trampled  the  offered  crown  under  his  feet,  over- 
turned the  royal  throne,  and  was  only  saved  by 
miracles  from  the  king's  revived  and  superstitious 
jealousy.  He  led  an  expedition  to  repulse  the  ar- 
mies of  Ethiopia,  —  the  suspicious  monarch  still 
hoping  that  he  might  perish  in  that  campaign ; 
crossed  safely  a  region  infested  with  venomous  ser- 
pents, by  the  aid  of  a  battalion  of  tamed  storks  ;  cut 
the  enemy  to  pieces  by  his  sudden  attack ;  and  mar- 
ried the  Ethiopian  princess,  who  passionately  loved 
him  for  his  valour  and  beauty,  and  betrayed  her  fa- 
ther's royal  city  for  his  sake.* 

The  Egyptians  confounded  his  name  with  that  of 
the  great  patriarch  Joseph  ;  saying  that,  when  they 
were  ordered  by  an  oracle  to  expel  all  lepers  from 
their  country,  a  vast  number  of  them,  headed  by 
"  Osarsiph  "  (afterwards  called  Moses),  fortified  the 
city  Rhamses,  or  Abaris,  the  old  capital  of  the  Shep- 
herd kings,  and  held  it  against  them  by  aid  of  an 
immense  force  from  Canaan,  and  ruled  the  land  of 
Egypt  for  thirteen  years  ;  then,  on  the  return  of 
Pharaoh  from  his  exile,  were  driven  back  into  the 
wilderness,  and  pursued  as  far  as  Syria. f  The  ac- 
count received  among  the  Greeks  and  Romans  made 
him  to  be  an  Egyptian  priest,  the  leader  and  founder 
of  the  Hebrew  people,  —  a  worshipper  of  one  God  in 
silent  thought  only,  or  one  who  denied  all  deities, 
and  adored  only  the  circuit  of  the  heavens,  which 

*  Josephus,  Antiquities,  I.  6.  t  Ibid.,  Against  Apion. 


38  MOSES. 

embraces  all  things.*  So  deep  and  broad  has  the 
distorted  shadow  of  the  great  Prophet  and  Lawgiver 
fallen  across  the  path  of  the  world's  history ! 

The  Hebrew  account  of  his  birth  is  simple  and 
beautiful.  In  the  lapse  of  time,  the  great  service 
rendered  to  Egypt  by  the  Hebrews  was  forgotten, 
and  "  another  king  arose,  who  knew  not  Joseph." 
Then  the  Egyptians  said :  "  The  children  of  Israel 
are  more  and  mightier  than  we  :  let  us  deal  wisely 
with  them,  lest  they  multiply  and  join  our  enemies, 
and  fight  against  us,  and  so  get  them  up  out  of  the 
land."  The  "  wise  dealing  "  was  to  keep  down  their 
numbers  by  stripes  and  hard  work ;  so  they  "  made 
their  lives  bitter  with  hard  bondage  in  mortar  and  in 
brick,  and  in  all  manner  of  service  in  the  field." 
But  in  Egypt  (as  since  in  Ireland)  misery  proved  no 
check  to  numbers  ;  "  the  more  they  afflicted  them, 
the  more  they  multiplied  and  grew  ;  "  till  the  horrid 
scheme  was  formed  of  casting  every  male  child  of 
theirs  into  the  river.  But  the  child  of  Amram  and 
Jochebed,  of  the  family  of  Levi,  was  a  goodly  child, 
and  by  his  mother's  care  was  hid  safely  for  three 
months,  —  the  Arabs  say,  concealed  in  an  oven  by 
faggots,  wliich  the  search-officers  set  on  fire  several 
times,  each  time  an  angel  guarding  him  from  the 
flame.  Then  his  mother  "  took  for  him  an  ark  of 
bulrushes,  and  daubed  it  with  slime  and  with  pitch, 
and  put  the  child  therein,  and  she  laid  it  in  the  flags 
by  the  river's  brink."  The  king's  daughter,  who 
came  to  bathe,  sent  to  fetch  the  frail  basket  with  the 

*  Strabo,  Lib.  XVI.  c.  2.    Tacitus,  Hist.,  V.  4,  5. 


FLIGHT   AND  RETURN.  39 

crying  child  ;  his  sister,  who  stood  near,  called  her 
own  mother  for  a  nurse  ;  and  so,  providentially  res- 
cued, the  boy  Moses  became  an  adopted  son  in  the 
royal  family,  entered  the  sacred  caste  of  priests,  and 
was  "  learned  in  all  the  wisdom  of  the  Egyptians." 

But  the  instinct  of  race,  or  the  leading  of  Provi- 
dence, was  strong  enough  to  overrule  his  high-caste 
culture  ;  and  when  Moses  came  to  be  a  man,  he  took 
his  people's  part  so  heartily,  that  he  killed  an  Egyp- 
tian taskmaster  whom  he  saw  abusing  one  of  the 
HebrO'WS,  —  having  first  foreseen  (as  his  Jewish  apol- 
ogist very  characteristically  says)  that  neither  that 
man,  nor  any  of  his  descendants,  would  ever  repent 
or  become  a  proselyte  to  all  future  time.*  Tlie  deed 
was  noised  about,  and  Moses  had  to  flee  into  the  wil- 
derness for  his  safety.  The  tribe  of  Midian  followed 
a  quiet  pastoral  life  in  the  rugged  peninsula  of  Sinai, 
between  the  two  arms  of  the  Red  Sea.  Among  them 
he  found  a  shelter  ;  married  a  daughter  of  the  head 
of  the  tribe ;  and  dwelt  in  the  mountain  solitudes  for 
forty  years.  Then  came  the  vision  of  the  mysterious 
fire  on  the  sacred  hill,  the  revelation  of  God  to  his 
soul  as  the  One  Living  and  Eternal,  and  the  com- 
mission to  go  back  without  fear  to  Egypt,  and  lead 
the  people  of  Israel  to  the  conquest  of  the  Promised 
Land,  seeing  that  "  those  men  were  dead  that  sought 
his  life."  Aaron,  his  elder  brother,  met  him  in  the 
Mount  of  God,  and  together  they  went  with  the  di- 
vine message  to  the  afflicted  people  ;  "  and  the  people 
believed ;  and  when  they  heard  that  Jehovah  had  vis- 

*  Winer.     That  "  the  sword  of  his  lips  leaped  forth  and  slew  the 
Egyptian  "  is  the  Talmudie  version  of  the  narrative. 


40  MOSES. 

ited  the  children  of  Israel,  and  that  he  had  looked 
upon  their  affliction,  they  bowed  their  heads  and  wor- 
shipped." 

The  theocratic  despotism  of  Egypt  had  at  length 
brought  things  to  such  a  pass  for  this  stranger  nation 
in  its  borders,  that  there  was  only  one  alternative 
before  them.  If  they  yielded  any  longer,  they  must 
forfeit  their  distinctive  character,  submit  to  customs 
and  institutions  alien  and  hateful  to  them,  and  be- 
come absorbed  in  the  stagnant  level  of  the  lowest 
Egyptian  caste,  —  the  caste  of  shepherds,  so  degraded 
by  the  hierarchy  to  perpetuate  their  scornful  and 
vindictive  memory  of  the  dynasty  of  Shepherd  kings. 
From  the  nature  of  its  constitution,  and  from  its 
inevitable  instincts,  such  a  theocracy  is  inexorable. 
Its  divine  right  (just  as  we  find  it  now  in  Rome) 
compels  the  denial  of  every  other  right.  Its  impera- 
tive dogmatism,  its  despotic  socialism,  must,  in  the 
long  run,  absorb  or  suppress  every  other  element  of 
the  state. 

While  the  people  were  in  the  helpless,  improvi- 
dent, disorganized  condition  of  chance  settlers  in  a 
rich  valley  like  that  of  the  Nile,  —  a  tempting  and 
defenceless  spoil  to  every  such  invader  as  that  bar- 
barous shepherd  tribe,  —  the  beginning  of  such  a  cen- 
tralizing power  may  have  had  its  need  and  use.  The 
story  of  Joseph  relates  that  it  was  absolutely  required, 
to  save  the  people  from  starvation.  While  the  deci- 
sive social  revolution  was  going  on,  and  the  balance 
wavered,  and  the  ruling  power  craved  all  aid  against 
the  recent  foe  and  the  people's  restiveness  under  new 
restraints,  the  shepherd  alliance  of  Joseph's  kindred 


ISRAEL   IN   EGYPT.  41 

was  doubtless  welcome  ;  and,  while  it  fortified  the 
border,  might  keep  in  a  good  degree  its  separate  na- 
tionality, —  like  the  Sclaves  and  Magyars  on  the  Aus- 
trian frontier. 

But  the  terrible,  all-absorbing  central  power  en- 
croaches on  the  boundaries  once  granted  willingly. 
The  tribe,  with  its  instincts  of  desert  and  mountain 
freedom,  feels  itself  caught  in  the  outer  eddy  of  a 
whirlpool,  from  which,  once  in,  there  is  no  escape. 
There  is  every  motive  of  quiet,  comfort,  habit,  and 
plenty  to  submit :  but  the  violent  instincts  of  the 
blood  rebel.  The  whole  force  of  Egyptian  despotism 
was  finally  put  forth  to  reduce  this  stubborn  tribe 
to  the  degraded  level  of  the  shepherd  caste,  to  be  the 
lowest  bondmen,  and  slaves  of  the  soil.  Effectual 
resistance  was  not  to  be  thought  of.  Discipline  and 
skill  were  on  one  side  ;  on  the  other,  numbers,  dis- 
organization, ignorance,  and  fear.  Conquest  and 
dominion  on  the  soil  of  Egypt  were  utterly  hopeless. 
There  remained,  as  the  only  alternative  to  complete 
submission,  the  desperate  possibility  that  by  com- 
bined resistance,  under  an  able  head,  they  might 
win  their  way  back  to  that  wilderness-region  of  Asia, 
to  try  again  the  perilous  chances  of  nomadic  life. 

Their  servitude  had  not  endured  long  enough  to 
crush  their  national  temper,  or  spoil  the  quality  of 
their  patriarchal  blood.  For  a  long  time  they  had 
lived  as  equal  allies,  perhaps  with  the  pride  of  an 
equipped  and  organized  force,  on  the  frontier  ;  and 
the  warm  and  fertile  Nile  valley,  while  it  tempered 
their  fierce  courage,  yet,  by  multiplying  their  num- 
bers,  gave   them   a  more   decided  feeling  of  their 


42  MOSES. 

strength.  From  seventy  souls,  they  had  risen  in  the 
four  centuries  (to  trust  their  reckoning  *)  to  some- 
thing more  than  two  million.  Even  supposing,  with 
some,  that  this  number  is  ten  times  too  great,  or,  as 
others  suggest,  that  it  includes  the  leagued  tribes  of 
the  desert,  the  Kenites,  and  possibly  some  nomadic 
Hebrews,  who  joined  them  when  they  had  come  out 
of  Egypt,  and  of  whom  but  few  ever  went  to  dwell 
in  Canaan,  —  still  they  made  a  numerous  and  for- 
midable force.  By  the  lowest  reckoning,  they  were 
some  sixty  thousand  armed  men  who  went  up  in  bat- 
tle array,  and  "  harnessed,  out  of  the  land  of  Egypt ; " 
besides  the  "mixed  multitude"  of  Egyptian  fugitives, 
who  chose  to  share  their  fortunes  in  the  wilderness. f 
It  was  this  immense  armed  emigration  that  found 
its  lead  in  Moses.  The  elder  brother,  who  repre- 
sents the  people  still  suffering  in  Egypt,  defers  to 
the  younger,  who  brings  the  decisive  alliance  fi'om 
beyond  the  border.  "  The  man  Moses  was  very 
great  in  the  land  of  Egypt,  in  the  sight  of  Pharaoh's 
servants,  and  in  the  sight  of  the  people."  Aaron 
was  but  "  his  spokesman  unto  the  people  ;  instead  of 
a  mouth  to  Moses,  while  he  should  be  to  him  instead 
of  God."  The  consummate  leadership  of  Moses  is 
even  enhanced  by  his  self-distrust,  because  he  had 
not  the  gift  of  ready  speech,  or  popular  arts.  The 
position   he  took  and   held  so  vigorously  until   his 

*  One  example  of  this  reckoning  is  sliown  in  the  case  of  Kohath, 
the  grandfather  of  Moses,  whose  descendants,  during  the  migration, 
are  set  down  as  8,600.  The  number  of  the  first-born  (Numbers  iii.  43) 
makes  the  Hebrew  families  average  thirty  or  forty  children  each. 

t  Bunsen  places  the  date  of  the  Exodus  very  confidently  at  about 
B.C.  1314. 


MOSES  AND   AARON.    *  43 

death,  was  "  not  of  his  own  mind.''  It  was  only 
after  a  long  struggle  that  he  yielded  to  the  summons, 
and  suffered  himself  to  become  master  of  the  event. 
It  was  only  by  long  experience  of  command  that 
he  found  the  resources  of  his  own  resolute  and 
unconquered  will ;  or  learned  to  rely  on  that  aus- 
tere and  high  conviction  developed  in  the  desert 
solitude  out  of  the  early  germs  of  his  Egyptian 
culture.  The  God  of  Israel  had .  chosen  for  his 
champion  the  one  man  in  whom  the  needed  qual- 
ities met,  to  inaugurate  a  new  era  in  the  destinies 
of  mankind. 

Moses  left  no  successor,  no  inheritor  of  his  rank 
and  peculiar  office.  Of  the  sons  of  Zipporah  we 
know  almost  nothing  ;  and  his  later  alliance  with  an 
"  Ethiopian  "  or  Arab  woman  only  brought  on  him 
the  reproaches  of  his  kindred.  He  lived,  as  he  died, 
alone.  Aaron  the  Levite  could  fulfil  the  ritual,  and 
the  priest's  routine ;  he  could  use  the  sacred  rod  at 
the  bidding  of  Moses,  or  fabricate  the  golden  calf 
at  the  people's  clamour  ;  and  when,  disarrayed  of  his 
vestments,  he  died  upon  Mount  Hor,  he  left  a  family 
line  of  priests,  that  continued  till  the  day  of  Christ, 
and  (according  to  the  Jewish  idea)  must  be  holding 
its  fimctions  in  reserve  even  now.  But  Moses,  the 
Prophet,  the  Lawgiver,  the  great-hearted  and  un- 
wearied leader  of  a  turbulent  multitude  for  the 
"  forty  years "  of  their  desert-wandering,  filled  a 
place  which  no  one  after  him  was  able  to  fill.  An- 
cient priesthoods  all  descended  through  the  family  or 
tribe  ;  but  there  is  no  primogeniture  in  the  succes- 
sion of  providential  men. 


44  MOSES. 

Divine  wonders,  in  the  Hebrew  narrative,  precede 
and  attend  that  wonderful  migration.  The  people's 
just  demand  was  backed  by  the  irresistible  power 
of  God.  The  prophet's  staif  became  a  serpent,  and 
devoured  the  rods  of  the  magicians  who  dared  to 
vie  with  him  in  wonder-working  skill.  The  water 
of  the  sacred  river  was  turned  to  blood.  The  land 
swarmed  with  noisome  heaps  of  frogs.  Gnats  and 
gad-flies  tormented  the  Egyptian  people.  A  pesti- 
lence assailed  their  cattle.  Their  reproach  of  the 
Hebrews  as  an  unclean  race  was  revenged  by  ulcers 
and  leprosy,  invading  even  the  sacred  persons  of 
their  priests.  Violent  hail  from  that  generally  cloud- 
less sky,  and  then  great  armies  of  locusts,  ravaged 
the  crops  of  the  rich  valley,  destroying  utterly  every 
green  thing.  A  "  darkness  that  might  be  felt "  gath- 
ered upon  the  land,  lasting  three  whole  days.  Still 
"  Pharaoh's  heart  was  hardened,  that  he  would  not 
let  the  people  go." 

It  is  a  contest  between  Jehovah,  the  guardian 
Deity  of  the  Hebrews,  and  Pharaoh  their  implacable 
tyrant ;  a  declaration  of  war  against  the  idol-gods  of 
Egypt ;  "  a  divine  drama  carried  out  in  human  his- 
tory, —  so  both  to  be  regarded  and  prized."  At  each 
stage  of  it  Jehovah  makes  the  tyrant's  heart  more 
stubborn,  so  as  to  furnish  room  for  a  fresh  display  of 
his  irresistible  strength.  The  scourge  that  smote  the 
people  struck  just  where  it  would  be  most  keenly 
felt  in  their  religious  sensibility;  for  of  all  nations 
the  Egyptians  were  most  scrupulous  in  their  super- 
stitions. It  was  the  river  they  honoured  as  "  the 
good  Osiris,"  and  prayed  to  yearly  for  its  propitious 


BEATS   OF   THE   FIRST-BORN.  45 

overflow,  whose  waters  ran  blood  and  bred  innumer- 
able swarms  of  unclean  creatures.  It  was  the  sacred 
bullock,  representative  of  the  divine  Apis,  that  per- 
ished with  the  pestilence.  The  diseases  that  came 
on  them  defiled  them  for  religious  rites,  as  well  as 
tortured  their  miserable  bodies  ;  and  their  own  ac- 
counts, even  more  emphatically  than  the  Hebrew 
ones,  declare  their  secret  dismay  before  this  new 
religious  Terror.  But  in  a  religious  quarrel,  it 
is  more  fatal  to  yield  than  to  suffer.  And  it  was 
not  until  the  mysterious  death-angel  had  smitten 
the  first-born  in  every  house,  "  from  the  first-born 
of  Pharaoh  that  sat  on  his  throne  unto  the  first- 
born of  the  captive  that  was  in  the  dungeon,"  that 
the  obstinate  king  relented.  In  the  mourning  and 
alarm  of  that  dreadful  night,  the  Egyptians  not 
only  allowed  but  hastened  the  Israelites'  flight,  and 
urged  propitiatory  gifts  upon  them  ;  for  they  said 
in  their  terror,  "  We  be  all  dead  men."  So  Jehovah 
led  them  out  "  in  battahons  ;  and  they  spoiled  the 
Egyptians."* 

The  treacherous  king,  rallying  from  that  panic 
terror,  followed  them  with  an  immense  force,  —  "all 
the  chariots  of  Egypt,  and  captains  over  every  one 
of  them."  From  the  direct  course  toward  the 
desert,  that  leads  to  Canaan,  Moses  turned  boldly 
to  the  south,  so  as  to  be  hemmed  inevitably  between 
the  mountain  and  the  sea.  There  was  only  one 
narrow  way  of  escape  ;  and  that  would  lead  right 
back   to  the  land   of  bondage.     The  hosts  lay  en- 

*  According  to  Goetlie  ( West-ostliches  Divan),  a  massacre  like  the 
Sicilian  Vespers. 


46  MOSES. 

camped  close  by  each  other  all  night,  and  in  the 
morning  the  deliverance  came.  For  "  Jehovah  had 
caused  the  sea  to  go  back  by  a  strong  east  wind  all 

that  night ; and  the  children  of  Israel  went  in 

the  midst  of  the  sea  upon  the  dry  ground  ;  and  the  wa- 
ters were  a  rampart  to  them  on  their  right  hand  and 
on  their  left."  And  when  the  Egyptians  had  hastily 
pursued,  and  were  now  in  the  channel  of  the  waters, 
"  the  sea  returned  to  his  strength  when  the  morning 
appeared ; "  and  the  full  flood  so  utterly  over- 
whelmed them,  that  "  there  remained  not  so  much 

as  one  of  them  ; and  Israel  saw  the  Egyptians 

dead  upon  the  sea-shore."  * 

That  noblest  of  the  Hebrew  odes,  which  celebrates 
this  stupendous  deliverance,  is  related  to  have  been 
sung  by  Moses  and  th«  whole  host  of  Israel,  while 
Miriam  and  all  the  women  accompanied  them  "  with 
timbrels  and  with  dances."  It  has  be^n  called  "  the 
song  of  the  Pass-over  ; "  and  may  have  made  a  part 
of  the  yearly  festivities  in  after  ages,  which  still 
looked  back  to  this  as  the  most  glorious  day  in  all 
the  Hebrew  annals. 


SONG    OF    MOSES. t 

Sing  praises  to  Jehovah,  who  hath  triumphed  gloriously ! 
The  war-horse  and  his  rider  hath  he  cast  into  the  sea ! 
Jehovah  is  our  strength  and  song,  —  his  victory  proclaim ; 
Jehovah  is  a  man  of  war,  —  Eternal  is  his  name  ! 


*  The  ebb  and  flow  of  the  tides  in  the  Red  Sea,  (noticed  by  Hero- 
dotus, II.  11,)  reaches  a  height  of  six  or  seven  feet, 
t  Exodus,  chap.  xv. 


SONG    OF   MOSES.  47 

The  sea  hatli  overwhelmed  King  Pharaoh's  chariots  and  his  host ; 

The  chosen  of  his  captains  all  are  in  the  Red  Sea  lost ! 

Proud  Pharaoh's  troop  is  swallowed. up!  by  mighty  floods  o'er- 

thrown, 
Horseman  and  chariot  sank  into  the  bottom  like  a  stone  ! 


Glorious  in  strength  is  thy  hand,  O  Jehovah ! 

Thy  hand,  O  Jehovah,  hath  crushed  the  proud  foe ! 
By  thy  might  overwhelmed  are  the  men  that  defied  thee,  • 
Like  stubble  consumed  by  thine  anger's  fierce  glow  ! 
At  the  blast  of  thy  nostrils'  terrible  breath, 
Together  the  sea  roaring  gathereth  ! 
The  flood-tide  mounts  in  a  towering  heap  ; 
The  waves  are  congealed  in  the  heart  of  the  deep  ! 

To  the  chase  !  overtake  them !  the  enemy  cried :  *    . 
There  is  vengeance  to  satisfy,  spoil  to  divide  : 

The  sword  in  my  hand  shall  be  red  with  slaughter ! 
But  Thou  with  thy  storm-wind  dost  heavily  blow ; 
Thy  waves  and  thy  billows  in  strength  overflow ; 

They  sank  like  lead  in  the  mighty  water  ! 

What  other  god  is  like  to  thee,  Jehovah  ? 

What  other  god  can  stand  before  thy  sight  ? 
Alone  art  Thou,  of  glorious  majesty, 

Fearful  in  praises,  wonderful  in  might ! 
Earth  swallowed  them  when  thou  held'st  out  thine  hand : 

But  Thou  in  mercy  leadest  forth  thine  own, 
Thy  people,  —  their  oppressor  overthrown,  — 

In  strength  dost  load  them  to  thy  holy  land. 

Now  shall  the  nations  all  the  tidings  hear ; 

Our  fathers'  foes,  —  their  hearts  shall  faint  with  fear ; 

And  sorrow  shall  lay  hold  on  Palestine, 

Astonishment  on  Edom's  royal  line ; 

Trembling  shall  seize  on  Moab's  men  of  might ; 

The  triBes  of  Canaan  melt  before  our  sight. 


48  MOSES. 

For  fear  is  come  upon  them,  and  alarm, 
A  mighty  dread  before  thy  stretched-out  arm. 
Still  as  a  stone  they  sk  while  we  pass  by. 
The  people  thou  hast  ransomed  gloriously. 

Jehovah  !  bring  thy  people  in,  and  plant  them 
Upon  the  mount  of  thine  inheritance  ; 
The  place  which  thou  hast  made  for  thee  to  dwell  in. 
The  sanctuary  which  thy  hands  have  built ; 
There  shall  Jehovah  reign  for  evermore  ! 

The  entire  track  of  the  Israelite  wandering  is 
fringed  with  mystery  and  miracle.  A  pillar  of  cloud 
by  day,  and  of  fire  by  night,  led  the  whole  weary 
march.  When  the  people  were  perishing  for  want  of 
food,  manna,  the  sweet  gum  of  a  desert  shrub,  fell 
like  hoar-frost  about  the  camp  ;  or  quails,  in  incredi- 
ble numbers,  afforded  them  an  over-supply  of  flesh. 
Through  their  forty  years'  journeying,  their  very  gar- 
ments and. sandals  waxed  not  old.  The  bitter  spring 
of  Marah  was  made  sweet  by  the  wood  of  a  certain 
tree  ;  and  when  Moses  struck  the  rock  in  Horeb, 
abundant  water  gushed  out  to  quench  their  raging 
thirst,  following  the  camp  (by  after  tradition)  through 
all  the  years  of  wandering  in  an  unfailing  rill.  The 
marauding  tribe  of  the  Amalekites  assault  them  at 
Rephidim ;  but  there  is  no  weariness  or  discomfiture 
to  the  Israelites  as  long  as  the  sacred  rod  is  held  out 
in  the  hand  of  Moses ;  and  in  the  hour  of  victory  Je- 
hovah assures  him  by  an  oath  that  he  will  have  war 
against  Amalek  from  generation  to  generation.* 

*  Thus  is  assigned  the  date  of  that  inexpiable  hatred  borne  towards 
Amalek  by  the  race  of  Israel,  of  which  we  find  scattered  hints  down  to 
a  late  period.     The  separation  between  Samuel  and  Saul  is  referred  to 


MOUNT   SINAI.  49 

Then  follows  the  astonishing  scene  of  the  announce- 
ment of  the  Law :  when  "  Mount  Sinai  was  altogether 
on  a  smoke,  because  Jehovah  came  down  upon  it  in 
fire ;  and  the  smoke  thereof  ascended  as  the  smoke 
of  a  furnace  ;  and  the  whole  mount  quaked  greatly : 
and  when  the  voice  of  the  trumpet  sounded  long,  and 
waxed  louder  and  louder,  Moses  spake,  and  God  an- 
swered him  by  a  voice." 

The  region  of  Mount  Sinai,  or  Horeb,  is  one  admi- 
rably fitted  for  the  purpose  Moses  had  in  view,  —  the 
discipline  of  his  fugitive  multitudes,  and  the  estab- 
lishing of  his  institutions  and  laws.  The  scenery  is 
of  a  sort  to  impress  them  powerfully,  —  all  the  more 
by  its  contrast  to  the  Nile  valley  they  had  lately  left. 
The  rugged  desert  pathway,  the  precipitous  crags,  the 
torrents  of  water  gushing  from  the  rock,  the  sudden 
rains  which  make  the  climate  of  that  peninsula  so 
different  from  the  opposite  Egyptian  shore,  the  unac- 
customed thunder  and  lightning,  and  mountain  tem- 
pests, —  these,  added  to  the  change  suddenly  intro- 
duced into  their  whole  manner  of  life,  and  contrasted 
in  each  particular  with  the  stifling  oppression  and 
ample  diet  they  had  known  in  Egypt,  made  their  daily 
existence  one  of  perpetual  marvel  and  excitement. 
It  was  in  the  still  fresh  experience  of  this  overwhelm- 
ing change  that  Moses  gathered  them  on  one  of  the 

the  anger  of  the  former,  because  Saul  had  come  to  terms  with  them 
when  already  "  utterly  destroyed."  When  they  had  been  quelled  by  re- 
peated inroads,  a  band  of  five  hundred,  in  Hezekiah's  time,  went  out 
to  Mount  Seir,  and  "  smote  the  remainder  of  them  that  were  escaped/' 
And  when  the  Jews  would  curse  the  memory  of  Haman,  their  perse- 
cutor in  Queen  Esther's  time,  they  said  he  was  of  Agag's  blood,  as 
tracing  his  descent  from  this  hated  and  exterminated  tribe. 
3  D 


50  MOSES. 

broad  levels  embosomed  among  the  mountain  ranges, 
where  he  established  the  form  of  their  camp-disci- 
pline, and  dictated  the  principles  of  their  national 
code. 

No  one  could  know  as  well  as  he  the  need  of  giv- 
ing the  people  a  strong  bond  of  union,  and  a  distinct 
stamp  of  nationality.  Their  quarrel  with  the  Egyp- 
tians was  a  religious  one,  in  its  nature  irreconcilable. 
From  the  course  they  had  taken  there  was  no  retreat. 
The  king's  treachery  in  pursuing  them  had  forfeited 
whatever  claim  there  might  be  for  the  return  of  the 
rich  prize  they  had  "borrowed"  in  their  flight;  while 
the  utter  destruction  of  his  armament  had  made  them, 
instead  of  fugitive  slaves,  triumphant  foes.  Their 
complaints  of  the  severe  discipline  they  must  submit 
to,  or  the  privations  of  the  wilderness,  and  their  hun- 
gry looking  back  to  the  leeks,  onions,  and  flesh-pots 
of  Egypt,  might  spoil  them  for  the  future,  but  could 
not  bring  back  the  past.  Their  only  help  now  was 
in  yielding  themselves  to  be  governed  by  the  one 
master  mind. 

Of  that  prodigious  and  decisive  event  of  the  He- 
brew history,  which  we  call  the  forty  years'  wander- 
ing in  the  desert,  we  have  but  the  scantiest  fragments 
of  tradition.  By  far  the  larger  portion  of  the  nar- 
rative that  contains  them  is  made  up  of  the  detail  of 
law  and  ritual,  such  as  it  was  doubtless  fabricated 
through  long  ages  of  the  theocracy.  The  "  Institu- 
tions of  Moses"  present  us  the  ideal  system  of  the 
national  government  and  faith  as  conceived  long 
after  by  the  ruling  Order  of  the  Jewish  priesthood  : 
not  a  practical  and  working  polity,  much  less  one 


THE  LAW.  51 

enforced  during  that  period  of  nomadic  life.  The 
ideal  of  the  Hebrew  life  and  institutions  is  projected 
upon  the  remote  background  of  an  half-historic,  half- 
legendary  Past.  The  name  of  the  great  Lawgiver, 
with  the  solemn  sanctions  of  the  Divine  command,  is 
assumed  as  authority  for  a  system  which  certainly  lay 
in  abeyance  for  several  centuries,  and  then  was  only 
attempted  to  be  carried  out  by  the  zeal  of  priests, 
with  the  countenance  of  pious  kings.  Moses  himself 
is  not  much  known  by  name  until  the  time  of  David, 
or  even  later.  We  can  by  no  means  treat  the  He- 
brew history  as  if  the  theory  of  it  were  ever  realized 
in  fact.  Some  of  the  most  marked  features  of  the 
Law,  as  the  Sabbatical  Year  and  the  Year  of  Jubilee, 
were  probably  never  carried  out,  except  partially, 
after  the  return  from  the  captivity.  Even  the  sacri- 
fice of  victims,  so  essential  in  the  propitiatory  rites 
of  the  later  Jewish  faith,  was  almost  certainly  an 
infrequent  thing  in  the  desert  life  (where  flesh-meat 
was  nearly  unknown),  and  was  held  of  small  ac- 
count by  several  of  the  prophets,  who  declared  that 
it  was  never  divinely  instituted  at  all.*  It  is  only 
when  we  consider  the  broader  features  of  the  He- 
brew nationality,  and  the  radical  type  of  character 
in  the  Hebrew  institutions,  that  we  can  feel  confi- 
dent in  determining  the  idea  of  the  great  Lawgiver 
himself.  What  is  essential  to  this  we  are  justified 
in  ascribing,  at  least  in  germ,  to  him ;  whatever 
goes  beyond  it  is  open  to  the  largest  and  freest  criti- 
cism, and  may  be  attributed  either  to  prior  customs 
and  tribal  institutions,  or  to  later  developments  of 

*  See  Jeremiah  vii.  22,  23,  and  Amos  v.  25. 


52  MOSES. 

the  Hebrew  hierarchy.*  Considering  the  circnm- 
stances  under  which  he  acted,  and  the  practical  exi- 
gencies of  his  command,  his  aim  was  doubtless  far 
simpler  than  that  usually  ascribed  to  him.  His  im- 
mediate task,  at  any  rate,  was  this :  to  take  a  tribe, 
once  valiant  and  fierce,  but  now  corrupted  by  a  gen- 
eration or  two  of  slavery ;  to  restore  its  courage  and 
self-reliance,  and  make  it  a  united  people,  fit  to  sub- 
due and  occupy  its  traditional  heritage  in  Canaan. 

The  bond  of  union,  the  centre  of  loyalty  and 
authority  for  the  entire  people,  should  be  the  worship 
of  their  powerful  Deliverer  from  bondage  and  their 
nation's  God.  It  was  no  abstract,  infinite,  universal 
Deity  they  were  to  honour  in  their  tabernacle  service  ; 
but  "  the  God  of  their  fathers,  the  God  of  Abraham, 
Isaac,  and  Jacob,"  known  in  that  earlier  age  as  "  El, 
the  Mighty,"  f  but  now  more  personally  as  Jehovah. 
The  name  is  significant  both  of  life  and  immortality ; 
and  in  it  is  broadly  indicated  the  type  of  the  Hebrew 
faith.  This  has  been  called  a  religion  of  Life,  in 
contrast  to  the  Egyptian,  —  a  religion  of  Death.  Je- 
hovah is  the  "  God  of  the  spirits  of  all  flesh,"  in 
contrast  to  the  worship  of  idols  and  the  fetichistic 
adoration  of  beasts.  Among  the  Egyptians  the  body 
was  held  sacred  and  embalmed  ;  the  Hebrews  re- 
tained some  of  their  rites  of  burial,  but  held  in  rev- 
erence only  the  spirit,  and  the  blood  which  was  its 
symbol.  The  Egyptians  had  an  elaborate  ritual,  rep- 
resenting the  judgments  of  the  future  world,  which 
unseen  realm  was  the  prominent  fact  of  their  theol- 
ogy:  Moses  kept  even  the  doctrine  of  immortality 

*  See  hereafter,  on  "  The  Law."  f  Exodus  vi.  3. 


RELIGIOUS  IDEAS.  53 

itself  in  abeyance,  and  made  both  his  religion  and 
its  retributions  to  refer  to  the  present  life  only. 
While  "  the  Egyptians "  (says  Tacitus)  "  worship 
many  animals  and  wrought  images,  the  Jews  ac- 
knowledge but  one  Divinity,  and  with  their  mind 
alone."  *  These  points  of  strong  contrast  are  ap- 
parent on  the  surface,  and  are  justly  referred  to 
Moses,  who  retained  the  interior  vitality,  while  he 
renounced  the  enslaving  superstitions,  of  the  "  wis- 
dom" he  had  learned. 

As  the  lowest  caste  in  the  Egyptian  theocratic  sys- 
tem, the  Hebrews  had  doubtless  been  excluded  from 
the  religious  privileges  of  their  master s.f  Now,  it 
should  be  their  glory  to  claim  an  inheritance  grander 
than  every  other :  they  should  be  "  a  kingdom  of 
priests,  and  an  holy  nation."  It  was  the  sin  of  those 
who  composed  the  Egyptian  hierarchy,  that,  while 
they  revered  in  sacred  mysteries  the  One  eternal  and 
unspeakable  Divinity,  they  taught  the  people  only  in 
the  gross  symbols  of  the  old  nature-religion,  and  en- 
couraged a  grovelling  and  slavish  superstition.  Moses 
nobly  disclaimed  every  exclusive  privilege,  or  monop- 
oly of  divine  truth  ;  he  would  have  "  all  Jehovah's 
people  to  be  prophets ; "  J  and,  in  announcing  the 
Decalogue  as  the  Hebrew  fundamental  law,  he  began 
with  the  grandest  declaration  of  His  paramount  sov- 
ereignty over  nature,  and  the  strict  forbidding  of 
worship  to  any  other.  This  was  the  central  and  the 
loftiest  thought  of  Moses,  —  not  so  much  an  absolute 
Monotheism,  as  the  emancipation  of  an  entire  people 

*  Historiae,  V.  5.  .  t  Lessing. 

t  Numbers  xi.  29. 


54:  MOSES. 

from  the  sensuous  bondage  and  degrading  terrors  of 
that  ancient  superstition. 

This  was  the  theoretical  aim,  such  as  we  may  con- 
ceive it  to  have  been  long  maturing  in  the  mind  of 
Moses.  The  practical  task  —  one  of  immense  and 
unforeseen  difficulties  —  was  to  make  it  the  real  cen- 
tre of  the  national  life,  and  to  change  it  from  a  spec- 
ulative to  a  working  faith.  The  conditions  in  which 
he  found  himself  dictated  the  terms.  In  the  style 
of  the  Mosaic  legislation,  as  we  may  venture  to  inter- 
pret it,  we  see  the  nature  of  those  conditions. 

The  Decalogue  was  the  form  of  Covenant  between 
the  people  and  their  Divinity,  —  the  primitive  type 
and  nucleus  of  the  entire  code.  Of  its  ten  brief 
precepts,  we  may  reckon  five  to  the  right  hand  for 
divine  duties,*  or  Piety,  and  five  to  the  left  for  social 
duties,  or  Humanity.  The  code,  in  its  complete  de- 
velopment, is  apparently  made  up  of  groups  of  ten 
precepts  each.  Eight  such  groups  have  been  thought 
to  be  pretty  clearly  traced ;  and  the  entire  scheme 
was  probably  meant  to  make  up  the  complement  of 
a  hundred.! 

The  custom  of  Sacrifice  was  retained  from  the 
practices  of  ancient  tribes,  with  many  forms  taken 
from  the  Egyptian  ritual.  A  large  number  of  special 
precepts  and  allusions  give  vivid  expression  to  tlie 
primitive  instincts  associated  with  that  immemorial 
rite  ;  —  a  sense  of  the  sacredness  of  all  life  ;  a  keen 
and  trembling  sympathy  with  the  natural  world  ;  rev- 

*  In  which  Philo  includes  reverence  to  parents, 
t   See  Ewald.    Also,  the  full  illustration  in  Biinsen,  Bihdwerk, 
Vol.  V. 


RELIGIOUS  RITES.  55 

erence  at  the  half-human  intelligence  of  the  lower 
animals,  or  their  inexplicable  instincts  approaching 
to  divination  ;  and  the  mysterious  awe  felt  at  the 
sight  of  blood  ;  —  qualities  traceable  throughout  the 
Hebrew  history  and  literature.*  A  remarkable  ves- 
tige of  remoter  and  more  inhuman  superstitions  has 
been  thought,  perhaps  unjustly,  to  lie  in  the  hint, 
that  the  victim  of  the  Passover  is  a  substitute  for  the 
first-born  child,f  —  recalling  the  mythic  offering  up 
of  Isaac.  And  still  another  relic  of  an  obscure  and 
almost  vanished  superstition  is  found  in  the  re- 
markable rite  of  expiation,  in  which  two  goats  were 
set  apart,  one  "  for  Jehovah,"  and  the  other  "  for 
Azazel,"  —  the  demon  of  the  wilderness,  whom  the 
Egyptians  in  like  manner  appeased  under  the  name 
of  Typhon.J 

Festivals,  at  new  and  full  moon,  which  led  to  the 
primitive  and  simple  division  of  time  by  weeks, §  also 
great  annual  holidays  in  spring  and  harvest,  belong 
to  the  most  remote  antiquity  of  the  East.  These 
were  celebrated  with  all  the  solemn  splendour  of  the 
Hebrew  ritual.  Thus  they  became  the  occasion  of 
developing  the  germs  of  the  much-needed  feeling  and 
faith ;  at  the  same  time  that  this  indulgence  of  an- 
cient habit  was  a  partial  check  on  the  invasion  of 
alien  superstitions,  —  the  Syrian  form  being  invested 
with  a  Hebrew  sense,  and  made  (as  in  the  Passover, 
Pentecost,  and  Tabernacles)  the  consecration  of  great 
national  memories. 

*  See  Exodus  xxiii.  19  ;  Levit.  xvii.  13  ;  Jer.  xii.  4  ;  Ezek.  xxiv.  7. 

t  Exodus  xiii.  12. 

X  Leviticus,  chap.  xvi.     See  Movers,  "  Die  Phonizer,"  Vol.  I. 

§  Ewald,  "  Anhang,"  p.  356. 


56  MOSES. 

We  thus  discern  in  the  Hebrew  institutions  traces 
of  strange  rites  and  primeval  manners,  adopted  or 
inherited  from  Arabia,  Syria,  or  Egjrpt.  Blending, 
as  they  did,  such  a  diversity  of  elements,  they  re- 
quired a  corresponding  luxury  and  complexity  of 
ceremonial.  What  the  design  of  the  lawgiver  might 
have  withheld,  the  people's  demand  enforced.  An 
elaborate  ritual,  prepared  with  all  the  gorgeousness 
their  desert  wealth  could  muster,  with  shrine  and 
ark  of  Egyptian  pattern,  and  an  altar  of  incense  ever 
burning,  —  with  symbolic  vestments  for  the  priests, 
and  the  oracular  Urim  and  Thummim  in  the  breast- 
plate, all  closely  copied  from  the  practice  of  the  Egyp- 
tians,* —  satisfied  the  popular  imagination,  which 
craved  the  stately  ceremonial  they  had  left  behind. 
The  simple  and  austere  morality  of  the  Decalogue, 
or  the  patriarchal  worship  enlarged  to  the  new  pro- 
portions of  their  national  life,  was  not  enough  for 
them.  The  transient  fervor  of  enthusiasm  had  for- 
saken them.  From  his  solitude  of  forty  days  Moses 
returned  to  find  them  in  a  noisy  and  lewd  carouse 
about  a  "  golden  calf"  that  Aaron  had  moulded  in 
the  likeness  of  the  bull  Apis  which  the  Egyptians  wor- 
shipped. Then  he  broke  the  two  stone  tables  that 
contained  the  simpler  law ;  and  then  (as  we  may  con- 
ceive) he  framed,  to  meet  their  lower  apprehension, 
whatever  of  that  elaborate  ceremonial  is  justly  as- 
cribed to  him.f 

The  primitive  system  of  the  Tribe  or  Clan  lies  at 

*  Kitto. 

t  The  form  of  Decalogue,  or  "  Covenant,"  given  in  Exodus,  chap. 
xxxiv.,  is  almost  purely  ritual.  See  Newman's  Hebrew  Monarchy, 
Chap.  IV.,  and  Bunsen,  Vol.  V. 


SOCIAL  INSTITUTIONS.  57 

the  base  of  the  social  institutions  of  the  Hebrews. 
It  was  closely  associated  with  most  of  the  religious 
rites  *  or  symbols  of  antiquity.*  It  was  recognized 
throughout  by  Moses,  and  was  only  gradually  and 
imperfectly  absorbed  in  the  later  institution  of  the 
Monarchy.  The  earlier  relics  of  Hebrew  literature 
(as  the  Song  of  Deborah  and  the  Oracle  of  Jacob) 
present  very  vividly  the  characteristics  of  the  several 
tribes  of  Israel.  Nothing  is  more  essential  to  the 
clear  understanding  of  the  history  than  this  distinct 
and  jealous  individuality  of  the  petty  clans.  The 
family  interest  is  somewhat  merged  in  the  nationality 
of  the  faith  and  worship  ;  but  it  is  the  turning-point 
in  determining  the  rights  of  property.  Destined  to 
an  agricultural  life,  with  moderate  possessions,  each 
man  held  his  estate  as  tenant  of  the  tribe.  The  fam- 
ily title  was  the  only  inalienable  one  ;  every  holding 
must  revert  at  last  to  the  original  tenant ;  and  no 
sale  or  transfer  of  land  could  be  effected  for  a  longer 
period  than  fifty  years. 

"  Many  of  the  laws  given  by  Moses  were  instituted 
partly  in  compliance  to  the  people's  prejudice,  and 
partly  in  opposition  to  their  superstitions."  f  The 
laws  of  custom  which  he  was  forced  to  allow  were 
those  of  nomadic  and  barbarous  life, — such  as  polyg- 
amy or  arbitrary  divorce,  the  extraordinary  ordeals 
of  the  husband's  jealousy,  and  the  duty  of  the  near- 
est relative  to  avenge  a  homicide.  J  The  most  apt 
commentary  on  a  large  portion  of  the  Pentateuch  is 

*  See  Grote's  Greece,  Vol.  III.  chap.  10. 
t  Warburton. 

t  See  Michaelis.    Also,  Layard's  "  Babylon  and  Nineveh,"  p.  305. 
3* 


58  MOSES. 

a  comparison  of  the  customs  still  prevailing  among 
the  people  of  the  East. 

It  would  not  be  doing  justice  to  the  man  (or  to 
the  system  of  which  he  was  founder)  to  omit  the 
humane  and  merciful  provisions  of  the  code.  The 
seventh  day  should  be  a  day  of  rest  to  labouring  man 
and  beast ;  for,  heavily  as  they  had  been  oppressed, 
the  Hebrews  might  never  inflict  on  their  bondmen 
as  heavy  and  unrelieved  a  yoke.  The  Hebrew  ser- 
vant went  free  at  the  end  of  six  years  ;  maiming,  or 
other  cruelty,  entitled  the  bondman  to  his  freedom  ; 
the  fugitive  had  earned  full  title  to  his  liberty,  and 
might  not  be  returned  to  slavery ;  and  among  the 
most  sacred  duties  was  that  of  charity  to  the  poor.* 
Peace,  said  the  later  law,  must  be  first  offered  before 
assault  should  be  made  upon  a  town  ;  the  fruit-trees 
of  an  enemy's  country  might  not  be  destroyed  ;  it 
was  a  crime  to  mislead  the  blind  or  deaf ;  and  even 
the  ox  should  not  be  muzzled  when  treading  out  the 
Gorn.f 

It  was  one  great  merit  of  the  old  theocracies  — 
Egyptian  and  Etruscan  as  well  as  Hebrew  —  that 
they  despotically  enforced  those  conditions  of  the 
general  health  which  most  modern  states  so  peril- 
ously neglect.  Very  many  of  the  Mosaic  laws  are 
sanitary  regulations,  dictated  perhaps  by  the  tradi- 
tions of  the  Egyptian  priesthood  (which  embodied  the 
best  medical  knowledge  of  the  time),  and  adapted  to 
the  necessities  and  exposures  of  a  camp-life  in  the 

*  Exodus  xxi.  2,  26,  27.    Deuteronomy  xxiii.  15 ;  xxiv.  19,  20. 
t  Leviticus  xix.  14.    Deuteronomy  xx.  10,  19;  xxvii.  18;  xxv.  4. 
But  see  2  Kings  iii.  19. 


SPECIAL  REGULATIONS.  59 

desert,  or  to  the  conditions  of  settlement,  as  con- 
querors, in  a  strange  land.  The  distinction  of  clean 
and  unclean  beasts,  the  minute  regulations  concern- 
ing leprosy,  and  other  maladies  of  the  race  and  cli- 
mate, and  many  of  the  ceremonial  ordinances  (re- 
garding, for  instance,  the  rite  —  both  sacrificial  and 
sanitary  —  of  circumcision,  and  personal  unclean- 
ness)  testify  to  the  anxious  oversight  bestowed  on 
the  conditions  of  health.*  A  large  portion  of  these 
statutes  must  be  judged  simply  by  the  rules  of  health, 
decency,  and  convenience,  as  applied  to  the  circum- 
stances of  the  "  wandering."  No  sanitary  police  in 
modern  times,  it  has  been  said,  and  the  discipline  of 
no  European  army,  has  equalled  in  effectiveness  and 
skill  the  health  regulations  of  the  Hebrew  Law.f 

Fortified  with  this  discipline,  and  taking  advantage 
of  the  first  flush  of  enterprise  and  confidence  they 
would  beget,  Moses  led  his  people  to  the  southern 
border  of  Canaan.  But  now  their  hearts  began  to 
fail  them.  Unnerved  by  the  peaceable  and  slavish 
life  they  had  led  in  the  hot  marsh-lands  of  the  Nile, 
they  were  in  no  condition  to  cope  with  the  giant 
mountaineers,  the  sons  of  Anak,  before  whom  they 
were  in  their  sight  "  as  grasshoppers."  The  land  was 
very  rich  and  fair,  said  the  spies  sent  to  survey  its 
quality;  and  from  the  valley  of  Eshcol  two  men 
brought  a  cluster  of  grapes  between  them  on  a  staff", 

*  Some  of  the  ordinances  (as  the  prohibition  of  camel's  flesh)  seem 
partly  designed  to  prevent  association  with  the  Arab  tribes.  The  earlier 
law  permits  the  use  of  locusts,  which  a  life  in  the  desert  might  re- 
quire ;  the  later,  unconscious  of  the  reason,  omits  the  law.  Le-^ticus, 
chap.  xi.     Deuteronomy,  chap.  xiv. 

t  Michaelis. 


60  MOSES. 

to  prove  their  words.  But,  withal,  so  formidable 
were  the  tribes  of  the  hill-country  which  guarded 
that  frontier,  that  the  Israelites  absolutely  refused 
to  advance  another  step.  A  violent  mutiny  rose  in 
the  camp ;  all  confidence  in  the  leadership  of  Moses 
was  gone  ;  and  Jehovah  was  on  the  point  of  giving 
over  the  recreant  people,  but  for  his  passionate  in- 
tercession.* 

There  was  but  one  course  to  follow.  The  leader's 
mind  was  too  clear  not  to  see  it,  too  calm  and  strong 
to  flinch  from  it.  Perhaps  such  another  instance  of 
resolute  and  high-minded  patience  is  not  to  be  found 
in  all  history  as  this :  when  the  old  man  Moses,  al- 
ready (by  our  account)  more  than  eighty,  turned  de- 
liberately back  from  the  Promised  Land, —  the  goal 
just  reached  of  his  hope  and  expectation,  —  and 
adopted  the  far-seeing  policy  of  adhering  to  that  no- 
madic life  till  a  whole  generation  should  be  trained 
of  sinewy  and  determined  men,  inured  to  the  toil, 
and  bred  to  the  hardy  valour  of  the  wilderness. 

The  period  which  follows  is  an  utter  blank ;  —  no 
date,  no  incident,  to  mark  the  course  of  events  ;  noth- 
ing but  the  barren  register  of  forty  encampments,  and 
the  vague  tradition  of  a  wandering  of  forty  years. f 

*  Numbers,  chaps,  xiii.,  xiv. 

t  Numbers,  chap,  xxxiii.  Goethe,  whom  Bohlen  follows,  (Comm.  on 
Genesis,)  denies  the  existence  of  this  blank;  holding  that  Moses  gave 
back  tlirough  sheer  incapacity,  and  that  the  expedition  was  finally  saved 
by  his  opportune  death  at  the  hands  of  Joshua  and  Caleb.  That  the 
history  of  Moses  is  cast  in  cycles  of  the  sacred  number  forty  is  suffi- 
ciently evident ;  but  witliout  being  responsible  for  the  figures,  we  may 
be  justified  in  accepting  a  fact  which  left  so  deep  a  mark  on  the  national 
mind  and  temper.  The  earlier  allusions  to  it  are  Ex.  xvi.  35 ;  Num. 
xiv.  33,  xxxii.  13;   Josh   v.  6,  xiv.  10.     It  is  needless  to  say,  that 


THE  DESEKT  WANDERING.  61 

A  few  months'  margin  on  either  side  of  this  great 
chasm  contains  the  scanty  record  of  a  few  incidents 
that  reUeve  the  bare  monotony.  Apparently,  the 
head-quarters  were  established  at  Kadesh,*  not  far 
from  the  southern  boundary  of  Canaan.  Here  Mir- 
iam died,  and  here  the  holy  tabernacle  rested,  while 
the  tribes  dispersed  for  easier  subsistence  about  the 
rocky  region  inhabited  by  allied  and  kindred  people. 
The  few  incidents  that  are  preserved  tell  of  formi- 
dable seditions,  suppressed  by  appalling  and  miracu- 
lous punishment ;  —  how  Nadab  and  Abihu,  sons  of 
Aaron,  who  offered  "  strange  fire,"  were  consumed 
by  a  flame  that  leaped  on  them  from  the  altar ;  and  a 
sudden  chasm  in  the  ground  ingulfed  the  rebellious 
Korah,  Dathan,  and  Abiram,  with  their  partisans  and 
families ;  how  at  three  several  times  a  terrible  pesti- 
tilence  was  only  checked  by  the  interposing  of  the 
priest ;  and  fiery  serpents  bit  the  people  so  that  great 
numbers  of  them  died,  when  they  "  spake  against 
God  and  against  Moses,"  till  the  plague  was  stayed 
by  the  brazen  figure  of  a  serpent  exhibited  on  a  staff.f 
It  is  told,  too,  how  the  pitiless  camp-discipline  stoned 
a  man  to  death  who  gathered  sticks  upon  the  Sab- 
bath, and  punished  blasphemy  in  the  same  summary 
way,  as  treason  against  Jehovah,  the  nation's  king.  J 

geographical  details  of  such  a  campaign  are  wholly  conjectural  and 
worthless.  As  to  the  capability  of  the  peninsula  at  this  time  to  sup- 
port a  considerable  population,  see  Ewald,  Vol.  II.  p.  201.  Goethe 
says,  "  The  subsistence  of  a  migratory  horde  is  no  mysteiy ;  they  live 
by  the  law  of  plunder  " ! 

*  Numbers  xx.  1.     The  name  signifies  a  sanctuary. 

t  Leviticus,  chap.  x.     Numbers,  chaps,  xi.,  xvi.,  xxi.,  xxv. 

t  Numbers,  chap.  xv.    Leviticus,  chap.  xxiv. 


62  MOSES. 

These  are  but  so  many  illustrations  of  the  rigour  of 
Levitical  or  theocratic  rule.  Dissent,  and  if  possible 
discontent,  must  be  suppressed  at  any  hazard  ;  just  as 
the  common  sense  of  military  service  is,  that  mutiny 
is  death.  They  are  preserved,  as  if  to  show  the  strin- 
gent handling  that  moulded  this  people's  infancy,  and 
revenged  contumacy,  and 'guarded  it  from  contamina- 
tion, as  well  as  to  assert  the  inviolable  sanctity  of  the 
commission  which  Moses  and  Aaron  held. 

Among  these  scanty  memorials,  too,  are  preserved 
a  few  fragments  of  Hebrew  song,  —  relics  (as  they 
may  well  be  thought)  even  of  that  remote  and  dim 
antiquity.     Such  are  the  form  of  benediction  :  — 

"  Jehovah  bless  and  keep  thee  ! 
Jehovah  make  his  face  to  shine  upon  thee, 

And  shield  thee  with  his  grace ! 
Jehovah  lift  his  countenance  upon  thee, 

And  give  thee  peace ! " 

the  Hebrew  battle-song:  — 

"  Our  God,  Jehovah,  rise  I 
Scatter  thine  enemies ! 
Let  them  that  hate  thee  flee  before  thy  face  ! " 

and  the  night-song  of  the  camp :  — 

"  Return,  O  Jehovah !  return  to  dwell 
With  the  myriad  thousands  of  Israel ! "  * 

•  The  weary  term  of  desert  life  was  at  length  over, 
and  the  children  of  Israel  were  once  more  marshalled 
towards  the  border  of  their  inheritance.  Aaron  had 
died  upon  Mount  Hor,  in  the  land  of  Edom ;  f  where 

*  Numbers  vi.  24  -26 ;  x.  35,  36-  t  Numbers,  chap.  xx. 


SONG   OF   THE  WELL.  05 

the  Arabs  revere  his  sepulchre  to  this  day,  and  call 
the  mountain  by  his  name.  Even  Moses  had  been 
once  untrue  to  the  quiet  dignity  and  resolute  faith 
of  his  position,  when  the  people  "  chode  with  him  at 
the  water  of  Meribah ; "  and  might  not  enter  the 
"promised  land,"  but  only  behold  it  from  afar. 
Passing  round  to  the  east  of  the  Dead  Sea,  far 
from  the  formidable  frontier  they  had  approached 
before,  they  came  to  the  rich  pasture  district  where 
the  Amorite  conquest  parted  the  kindred  tribes  of 
Moab  and  Ammon.  This  was  the  scene  of  the  first 
decisive  victories  ;  and  this  district  (known  by  the 
general  name  of  Gilead)  became  the  earliest  Hebrew 
settlement  and  the  patrimony  of  the  three  pastoral 
tribes. 

The  revived  cheer  and  fiercer  spirit  of  the  people 
appear  in  all  the  incidents  of  the  way.  The  "  Song 
of  the  Well"  expresses  the  exulting  joy  of  the  host 
at  finding  itself  once  more  in  a  land  of  brooks  and 
living  springs,  and  the  spirit  of  that  league  in  which 
the  people  and  their  chief  were  one  ;  — 

"  Sing  to  the  springing  well  I 
By  captains  brave  the  well  was  made,  — 

Princes  of  Israel : 
Their  staff  and  sceptre  were  the  spade 
That  dug  the  people's  well ! "  * 

Sihon,  king  of  the  Amorites,  and  afterwards  the 
giant  Og,  king  of  Bashan,  came  out  to  defend  their 
newly-got  conquest ;  but  in  obstinate  battle  were  de- 
feated and  slain.  The  following  brief  battle-song 
commemorates   with   sarcastic  triumph   the   victory 

*  Numbers  xxi.  18. 


64  MOSES. 

over  Sihon,  and  insults  the  helplessness  of  the  gods 
of  Moab :  — 

"  Come  into  Heslibon  !  build  and  prepare 
The  city  of  Sihon  !     But  fire  blazes  there ! 
A  fire  out  of  Heshbon,  a  flame  lit  by  Sihon, 
Devours  Ar  of  Moab,  and  the  dwellers  by  Arnon ! 

"  Wo  to  Heshbon  !     O  people  of  Chemosh  forsaken, 

Your  sons  are  in  flight,  and  your  daughters  are  taken  ! 
We  have  shot  them !  and  Heshbon  is  waste  far  as  Dibon, 
And  Nophali  is  desolate  hard  by  Medeba."  * 

The  king  of  Moab  naturally  distrusted  the  good- 
will of  these  formidable  allies,  who  wrested  back  his 
cities  from  the  conqueror  to  keep  them  for  their  own. 
Tlie  soothsayer  Balaam  f  was  called  in  to  foil  them 
by  his  incantations  :  but  the  very  beast  he  rode  re- 
proved him  in  human  words  ;  his  curses  were  turned 
to  blessings  in  his  mouth,  and  became  a  splendid 
prophetic  ode,  declaring  the  future  fortune  and 
strength  of  Israel,  and  the  ruin  of  all  the  tribes 
that  should  league  themselves  against  him.  Of  this 
prophecy  the  following  passages  dwelt  long  in  the 
popular  imagination,  and  had  a  powerful  effect  to 
the  last  in  stimulating  the  hopeless  struggle  of  the 
Jews  against  their  oppressors  :  — 

*  Numbers  xxi.  27-30. 

t  Balaam  is  the  "Archimage"  of  later  Jewish  fancy,  the  type  of 
hostility  to  Jehovah,  and  the  perpetual  adversary  of  Moses.  His  two 
sons,  Jannes  and  Jambres,  are  magicians  at  Pharaoh's  court,  where 
they  predict  the  birth  of  the  wondrous  child,  and  seek  to  compass  his 
destruction ;  they  are  afterwards  foiled  by  him  when  they  try  to  rival 
the  wonders  of  his  miraculous  staff.  Balaam  is  at  length  worsted  and 
flung  down  to  perish  by  Phinehas,  with  whom  he  wages  a  battle  of 
enchantments  in  the  air. 


BALAAM.  65 

Mine  eyes  shall  see  it,  but  not  now.     Afar 

In  Jacob  I  behold  the  coming  Star. 

From  Israel  a  Sceptre  shall  arise 

That  heavily  shall  smite  his  enemies. 

Moab  is  struck  through  temple  and  through  crown, 

And  all  the  sons  of  strife  are  beaten  down ; 

Spoil  of  their  foes  shall  Seir  and  Edom  be, 

While  Israel  goes  forth  to  victory. 

From  Jacob  cometh  one  whose  conquering  hand 

Destroys  the  remnant  of  the  hostile  land.* 

High  was  thy  place,  and  haughty  was  thy  neck,  — 

At  last  forever  fall'n,  O  Amalek ! 

Strong  was  thy  dwelling  in  thy  rocky  nest, 

O  Kenite !  till  by  Asshur  dispossest,  — 

Thy  sons  a  prey,  thy  land  a  wilderness : 

Alas !  and  who  shall  live  when  God  doeth  this  ? 

Armed  ships  'gainst  Asshur  sail  from  Cyprus'  shore  ; 

Asshur  and  Eber  then  shall  fall  to  rise  no  more  ! 

The  baffled  king  now  sought  to  effect  his  purpose 
by  a  treacherous  league  with  the  desert  tribe  of 
Mi"dian,  and  by  tampering  with  the  allegiance  of  the 
Hebrews.  But  by  this  time  the  vindictive  and  bloody 
temper  of  conquest  was  fully  roused.  The  desert 
alliance  was  cut  to  pieces.  Balaam  himself  was  slain 
in  the  rout.  The  Mdabites  were  compelled  to  a  sul- 
len peace.  The  tribe  of  Midian  was  cut  off  to  a 
man,  and  nothing  spared  but  cattle  for  spoil,  and 
the  young  girls  for  slaves.  The  command  was  given, 
that  no  quarter  should  be  granted,  and  no  mercy 
shown  to  any  of  the  corrupted  blood  of  the  Canaan- 
ites, — a  command  impossible  to  be  completely  obeyed, 

*  Numbers  xxiv.  17-19.  Composed,  according  to  Bunsen,  in  the 
time  of  David;  the  succeeding  verses  (20-24)  some  centuries  later. 


QQ  MOSES. 

however  frightful  the  carnage  it  set  on  foot;  and 
probably  in  itself  an  afterthought,  it  has  been  sug- 
gested,* when  the  nation  came  to  feel  the  inconven- 
ience and  peril  of  living  among  a  half-subdued  and 
exasperated  population.  Eager  for  the  coveted  prize 
that  lay  before  them,  and  well  united  now  in  a  hope 
just  on  the  edge  of  fulfilment,  the  tribes  encamped 
at  the  fords  of  the  river  Jordan. 

Then  Moses,  in  his  stern  and  vigorous  old  age  of 
a  hundred  and  twenty  years,  "  his  eye  not  dim,  nor 
his  natural  force  abated,  .  .  went  up  from  the  plains 
of  Moab  to  the  mountain  over  against  Jericho  ;  and 
Jehovah  showed  him  all  the  land  of  Judah  unto  the 
utmost  sea,  and  the  south,  and  the  plain  of  the 
valley  of  Jericho,  the  city  of  palm-trees ;  and  said,  I 
have  caused  thee  to  see  it  with  thine  eyes,  but  thou 
shalt  not  go  over  thither.  So  Moses  the  servant  of 
Jehovah  died  there,  in  the  land  of  Moab,  according 
to  Jehovah's  word ;  and  he  buried  him  in  a  valley  in 
that  land  ;  but  no  man  knoweth  of  his  sepulchre 
unto  this  day."  f 

The  unfinished  task  of  Moses  was  carried  on  by 
Joshua,  whom  he  had  already  selected  as  the  most 
competent  leader.     With  a  far  narrower  range  of 

*  Newman.     See,  hereafter,  pages  73,  74. 

t  Deut.  xxxiv.  Josephus  relates  that,  "  while  he  was  still  discours- 
ing, a  cloud  stood  over  him,  and  he  disappeared  in  a  certain  valley ; 
although  he  wrote  in  the  holy  books  that  he  died,  out  of  fear  lest  they 
should  venture  to  say,  that  because  of  his  extraordinary  virtue  he  went 
to  God."  For  the  divine  honour  in  which  Moses  was  held  by  the  later 
Jews,  and  the  extraordinary  legends  respecting  bis  death,  see  Gfrorer, 
"Jahrhundert  des  Hells,"  Vol.  II. 


CONQUEST   OF   CANAAN.  67 

character,  Joshua  had  an  equally  stern  and  deter- 
mined will.  His  temper  and  his  work  were  essen- 
tially warlike.  His  task  was  the  vindictive  and  cruel 
business  of  conquest.  The  Canaanites  were  a  numer- 
ous people,  and  highly  civilized  for  that  time.  They 
dwelt  in  cities,  and  exercised  the  peaceable  arts  of 
life.  Their  equipment  was  of  horses,  and  chariots 
of  iron.  They  were  formidable  mainly  from  their 
numbers.  Their  seven  nations  were  each  more  popu- 
lous (said  later  fame)  than  the  twelve  tribes  of  Is- 
rael.* The  war  with  them  was  a  war  of  race  and 
religion ;  to  be  effectual,  it  must  be  a  war  of  exter- 
mination. The  Hebrews  must  "  smite  them  and  ut- 
terly destroy  them  ;  make  no  covenant  with  them, 
and  show  them  no  mercy,  but  destroy  their  altars, 
and  break  down  their  images,  and  cut  down  their 
groves,  and  burn  their  graven  images  with  fire." 
Such  were  the  savage  and  relentless  terms  of  war- 
fare in  that  age :  such  were  the  conditions  on  which 
the  Hebrew  conquest  could  be  secure,  and  the  na- 
tional worship  unmolested. 

It  is  needless  to  say,  that  the  frightful  task  was 
never  tlioroughly  done.  But  the  records  of  the  con- 
quest, and  the  laws  of  procedure  enjoined  for  it,  tell 
well  enough  the  nature  of  such  a  struggle.  Its  jus- 
tification, if  at  all,  is  to  be  found  in  the  event,  where 
we  seek  the  justification  of  all  great  historical  facts : 
certainly  not  in  the  motive  or  temper  of  the  con- 
querors. Neither  the  age  nor  the  people  was  one 
to  feel  strong  scruples.  To  the  tribes  of  Israel  it 
was  a  matter  of  spoil,  and  animosity  of  race.     To 

*  Deuterouomy  vii.  2,  7. 


68  MOSES. 

their  leaders  it  was  a  political,  and  (in  the  sense  of 
that  day)  a  religious  necessity.  Conquest  was  the 
only  alternative  besides  going  back  to  Egyptian 
bondage,  or  else  wasting  the  people's  life  in  the 
hazards  of  the  wilderness, — conquest  the  more  com- 
plete, the  better. 

During  the  years  of  wandering,  the  Hebrews  had 
dwelt  among  confederate  and  kindred  tribes.  The 
repulsed  forces  of  the  Shepherd  dynasty  made  up 
(perhaps)  those  which  they  recognized  as  brother 
nations,  Edom  and  Moab.  They  had  kept  on  friendly 
terms  with  them,  and  sought  their  alliance  always, 
and  dealt  with  them,  in  the  main,  with  desert  cour- 
tesy. But  these  tribes  were  now  jealous  of  their 
growing  strength,  and  encroached  on  by  their  pres- 
ence. And  so  they  were  compelled  to  try  their  for- 
tune further,  even  though  they  had  no  design  of  it 
when  they  left  the  land  of  Egypt.  Like  the  Franks 
in  Europe,  they  were  the  last  of  a  succession  of  con- 
quering iiordes,  and  had  to  pass  beyond  the  rest,  to 
come  at  richer  and  remoter  territories,  which  these 
had  spared.* 

The  indigenous  tribes  of  Canaan  had  already,  by 
this  series  of  invasions,  been  crowded  into  the  scanty 
region  between  the  Jordan  and  the  sea.  This  region 
was  well  defended,  abounding  in  "  cities  fenced  with 
high  walls,  gates,  and  bars,  besides  unwalled  towns 
a  great  many."  As  the  conquest  went  on,  the  in- 
vaders must  spoil  where  they  could  not  destroy,  and 
cripple  where  they  could  not  kill.  Their  own  force 
was  on  foot,  with  the  ruder  outfit  of  swords,  pikes, 

*  This  view,  and  the  historical  parallel,  are  suggested  by  Ewald. 


OCCUPATION  OF   CANAAN.  69 

slings,  and  bows;  and  in  their  desperate  warfare 
they  could  not  acquire  the  training,  or  wield  the 
more  cumbrous  armament,  of  the  natives.  The 
horse  was  a  creature  they  feared  and  hated,  from 
their  Egyptian  memories,  and  from  the  habits  of 
their  nomadic  life  ;  and  the  genuine  Israelite  never 
to  the  last  got  the  better  of  this  fixed  antipathy. 
Their  savage  practice  was  to  slaughter  their  prisoners 
without  mercy,  hamstring  the  horses,  and  destroy 
the  chariots  with  fire. 

They  got  slow  and  gradual  possession  of  the  land, 
seizing  first  the  strongholds  and  forest-clad  hills. 
They  marked  out  the  territory  with  boimdaries  for 
the  several  tribes,  and  spent  five  years  in  reducing 
it  to  submission.  The  proud  clans  Ephraim  and 
Manasseh  claimed  a  larger  share,  and  complained 
that  they  could  hold  only  the  highlands,  and  were 
kept  out  of  the  populous  valleys  ;  but  Joshua  an- 
swered scornfully,  that  if  they  were  strong  enough  to 
make  the  larger  claim,  they  must  be  strong  enough 
to  make  it  good ;  and  bade  them  go  hew  themselves 
a  clearing  in  the  forest  (of  men  ?)  that  was  round 
them.  In  their  northern  conquests,  it  is  related, 
"  every  man  they  smote  with  the  edge  of  the  sword, 
until  they  had  destroyed  them,  neither  left  they  any 
to  breathe."  And  so  far  were  they  from  always 
asserting  a  religious  motive,  or  commission,  that,  at 
a  little  later  date,  a  party  from  the  tribe  of  Dan  fell 
treacherously  upon  the  peaceable  town  of  Laish,  far 
to  the  north,  massacred  all  the  inhabitants,  and  then 
"  set  them  up  Micah's  graven  image,  all  the  time  that 
the  house  of  God  was  in  Shiloh."  * 

*  Judges  xviii.  31. 


70  MOSES. 

But  seen  with  the  eyes  of  a  grateful  posterity,  who 
could  overlook  the  detail  of  its  horrors  in  its  national 
and  religious  benefits,  this  ferocious  conquest,  any. 
more  than  the- Exodus  out  of  Egypt,  was  not  without 
its  traditionary  marvels  and  its  signal  marks  of  spe- 
cial aid  from  God.  The  Jordan,  overflowing  its 
banks  at  harvest-time,  had  stopped  its  course,  and 
left  its  channel  dry  for  the  invaders.  The  strong 
walls  of  Jericho  had  fallen  at  the  people's  shout  and 
the  blast  of  the  priests'  trumpet.  Jehovah  drove 
the  inhabitants  in  terror  before  a  swarm  of  hornets. 
If  they  suffered  a  momentary  repulse  at  Ai,  a  mir- 
acle pointed  out  the  guilty  man  whose  crime  had 
brought  on  the  disaster.  When  five  confederate 
kings  had  rallied  the  forces  of  the  entire  south  for 
a  last  desperate  resistance,  "  the  sun  stood  still  on 
Gibeon,  and  the  moon  in  the  vale  of  Ajalon,"  at 
Joshua's  command,  and  "  hasted  not  to  go  down  for 
a  whole  day,"  till  the  hosts  were  put  to  rout ;  and 
even  in  their  flight,  a  terrific  hail-storm  destroyed 
more  of  them  than  the  Israelites  had  been  able  to 
slay. 

The  head-quarters  were  removed,  with  the  advanc- 
ing conquest,  from  Gilgal,  over  against  Jericho,  to 
Shiloh,  in  the  heart  of  the  land  ;  and  here  the  sanc- 
tuary was  fixed  till  quieter  times  should  come.  The 
"  reproach  of  Egypt "  had  been  taken  off  by  the  re- 
newal, or  solemn  adoption,  of  the  Egyptian  rite  of 
circumcision.  The  national  ordinances  of  feast-days 
and  ceremonial  came,  we  may  suppose,  into  partial 
use.  And  though,  from  their  inferior  skill  in  mili- 
tary art  and  equipment,  the  victories  of  the  Hebrews 
were  but  slow,  and  for  generations  they  led  a  cam- 


THE   CONQUEST.  71 

paign  life  among  the  rugged  hills,  and  carried  on  a 
warfare  of  hasty  assault  or  treachery,  "  like  quaking 
islands  in  a  stormy  sea,"  —  though,  scattered  as  they 
were  among  hostile  and  populous  communities,  they 
had  to  come  to  terms  with  them,  and  so  lost  for  a 
time  their  unity  and  strength,  —  still  the  central 
force  was  slowly  organized,  under  Joshua  the  com- 
mander and  Eleazar  the  priest;  and  a  firm  admin- 
istration of  five  and  twenty  years  gave  every  pledge 
that  the  grand  design  of  Moses  would  be  accom- 
plished. 

With  Joshua's  death  expires  the  latest  gleam  of 
this  heroic  age  of  the  Hebrew  history.  Hitherto, 
the  will  and  character  of  Moses  had  exercised,  as  it 
were,  a  personal  control,  and  had  guarded  the  unity 
of  the  chosen  people.  The  last  of  that  generation 
was  now  passed  away.  And  here  followed  the  inev- 
itable period  of  anarchy,  disaster,  violence,  and  mis- 
rule, which  we  know  as  the  period  of  the  Judges. 

The  Conquest  of  Canaan,  as  we  have  now  seen 
some  of  its  leading  incidents  and  features,  was  an 
event  such  as  the  historian  becomes  only  too  familiar 
with  in  the  annals  of  mankind.  It  is  equally  un- 
worthy to  attempt  to  justify  its  frightful  atrocities  by 
any  maxims  of  ordinary  or  extraordinary  ethics  ;  or, 
on  the  other  hand,  to  make  the  master-spirit  of  this 
movement  bear  the  guilt  of  them.  Placed  as  he  w^as 
for  the  guiding  of  a  people  so  debased,  he  demands 
the  allowance  that  should  be  made  for  their  passions 
as  he  found  them,  and  for  the  bloody  morality  of 
that  age.     Seen  at  this  distance,  and  treated  with  a 


72  MOSES. 

generous  historical  criticism,  the  Hebrew  conquest 
becomes  one  of  the  critical  events  of  the  world's  his- 
tory ;  and  its  consequences  have  immensely  operated 
on  the  human  race  for  good.  It  is  when  we  come  to 
see  the  difference  between  this  and  a  multitude  of 
other  conquests,  no  more  rapacious  or  sanguinary, 
but  utterly  powerless  for  any  influence  on  mankind 
at  large,  —  as  the  aggressions  of  Persia  in  Asia  Minor, 
and  the  ravages  of  Attila  or  Genghis  Khan,  —  that 
we  discern  where  the  greatness  and  glory  of  Moses  lie. 
To  no  nation  of  antiquity  are  we  more  profoundly 
indebted  than  to  the  Hebrews.  It  is  not  too  much  to 
say,  that  they  have  fixed  in  the  intellect  of  the  world 
the  type  of  the  most  exalted  religious  thought,  and 
have  thrown  infinitely  clearer  light  than  all  other 
races  upon  the  problem  of  man's  religious  destiny. 
This  was  the  providential  mission  of  that  race, 
wrought  out  through  the  twenty  centuries  of  its 
history.  And  this  most  exalted  mission,  this  noblest 
providential  destiny,  was  confided  in  its  germ  to  the 
fidelity  of  the  man  Moses,  —  a  fidelity  which  through 
his  whole  long  life  endured  every  test.  It  was  he  who 
rescued  that  chosen  people  from  the  lot  of  vulgar 
conquerors,  and  won  for  them  a  title  to  the  gratitude, 
and  not  the  execration,  of  the  world.  When  the 
germs  of  their  national  character  and  faith  became 
developed,  and  Israel  was  known  as  a  strong  and 
united  people,  it  was  his  guiding  thought,  the  august 
memory  of  his  paramount  and  inspired  greatness, 
that  made  their  noblest  heritage  in  the  land  to  which 
he  led  them. 


III.    THE    JUDGES 


FOR  a  generation  or  two  after  the  Conquest  under 
Joshua,  there  was  going  on  "  a  silent  revolu- 
tion, by  the  gradual  absorption  of  the  Canaanite 
populations  into  the  name  and  sympathies  of  Is- 
rael."* In  other  words,  that  compromise  which 
Moses  and  Joshua  had  dreaded,  and  sought  to  pre- 
vent by  a  religious  war  of  extermination,  did  in  fact 
take  place.  The  Hebrew  tribes  had  to  a  great  degree 
lost  their  fierce  nationality,  and  yielded  to  the  looser 
customs  and  morals  of  the  people  among  whom  they 
lived.  They  were  no  longer  "  separated  from  all  the 
people  on  the  face  of  the  earth."  They  "  dwelt 
among  the  Canaanites,  Hittites,  and  Amorites,  and 
Perizzites,  and  Hivites,  and  Jebusites  ;  and  they  took 
their  daughters  to  be  their  wives,  and  gave  their 
daughters  to  their  sons,  and  served  their  gods."  f 

These  coalitions,  however  plausible  or  even  neces- 
sary then,  were  "  generally  reprobated  by  a  distant 
posterity,"  who  ascribed  to  them  all  the  miseries  of 
the  time.  From  loyal  and  closely  leagued  invaders, 
the  Israelites  had  become  scattered  and  jealous  local 
populations.  Humiliated  in  war,  deprived  sometimes 
even  of  the  arts  of  peace,  distrustful  of  one  another, 

*  Newman,  p.  23.  t  Judges  iii.  5,  6. 

4 


74  THE  JUDGES. 

and  with  nothing  that  could  be  called  national  spirit, 
or  worship,  or  faith,  or  institutions,  they  underwent 
a  long  process  of  disintegration.  Only  scanty  and 
doubtful  recollections  are  preserved  of  the  centuries 
that  preceded  the  organizing  of  the  Hebrew  monar- 
chy by  Samuel ;  and  these,  in  the  warning  words  of 
the  chronicler,  marked  that  as  the  dismal  time  when 
"  there  was  no  king  in  Israel,  but  every  man  did  that 
which  was  right  in  his  own  eyes." 

Unity  of  the  tribe  was  the  only  unity  that  seems 
at  all  times  to  have  been  recognized.  Independent 
groups  or  transient  alliances  were  formed,  as  occa- 
sion urged,  when  neighbourhood  of  territory  required 
some  common  right,  or  exposed  to  a  common  danger. 
Tolerably  secure  possession  of  the  land,  as  against 
the  old  inhabitants,  was  almost  the  only  positive  gain 
as  yet.  This,  though  purchased  at  the  price  often  of 
humiliation  and  disloyalty,  did  yet  permit  some  roots 
of  a  native  Hebrew  culture  to  strike  into  the  soil. 

Certainty  of  dates,  and  orderly  sequence  of  events, 
are  by  no  means  to  be  looked  for  in  the  annals  of 
such  a  time.  Such  chronology  as  we  have  is  purely 
artificial  and  arbitrary.  In  the  later  history,  we  find 
the  period  of  four  hundred  and  eighty  years  assumed, 
as  bridging  the  space  between  the  march  from  Egypt 
and  the  building  of  the  temple.*  This  is  the  earhest 
and  simplest  scheme.  But  different  estimates  of  the 
same  period  vary  as  widely  as  from  three  hundred  and 
twenty  to  near  seven  hundred  and  fifty  years.  Taking 
the  first-mentioned,  we  have  in  it  twelve  divisions  of 
forty  years  each,  —  the  constant  unit  of  time  in  the 

*  1  Kings  vi.  11. 


SETTLEMENT    OF  THE   TRIBES.  75 

Hebrew  records.  Deducting  the  times  of  Moses, 
Joshua,  and  David,  there  remain  three  hundred 
and  sixty  years  for  that  disastrous  period  which 
closed  with  the  nearly  contemporary  deaths  of  Sam- 
uel and  of  Saul.  Then  forty  years  may  be  assigned 
to  each  of  the  nine  heroic  names.* 

We  notice  from  the  very  first  that  cleavage  in  the 
structure  of  the  Hebrew  nationality,  which  resulted 
at  last  in  the  separation  of  the  two  kingdoms.  Eph- 
raim  and  Judah  appear  as  the  heads  respectively  of 
the  families  of  Rachel  and  Leah,  Jacob's  wives. 

Ephraim  and  Manasseh  (heirs  of  the  more  fa- 
voured branch)  at  once  claim  pre-eminence  on  the 
soil  of  Canaan.  Judah  had  led  the  march  in  the 
desert  wandering,  claiming  the  birthright  of  the  elder 
race  ;  but  "  the  sceptre  departed  from  him,  and 
the  leader's  staff  from  between  his  feet,"  when  the 
sanctuary  was  fixed  at  Shiloh.  Joseph,  the  favoured 
son,  assumes  the  superior  rank,  and  claims  his 
double  portion.  Joshua,  the  great  hero  of  the 
tribe  of  Ephraim,  and  thus  the  direct  represent- 
ative of  Joseph,  chose  his  portion  at  Shiloh.  The 
heart,  and  impregnable  stronghold,  and  fairest  re- 
gion of  the  land,  belonged  to  the  banded  brothers. 
Only  the  rashness  and  arrogance  of  Ephraim  pre- 
vented its  maintaining  a  permanent  ascendency. 
The  intolerable  temper  of  that  tribe,  manifested  on 
several  occasions,  exposed  it  to  the  enmity  of  all  the 
rest,  —  prefigured  in  the  story  of  Joseph's  treatment 

*  Othniel,  Ehud,  Shamgar,  Deborah  (Barak),  Gideon,  Jephthah, 
Samson,  Eli,  Samuel.  Besides  these,  we  find  room,  in  broken  inter- 
vals, for  the  names  of  Tola,  Jair,  Ibzan,  Elom,  and  Abdon. 


76  THE  JUDGES. 

at  his  brothers'  hands.  The  men  of  Ephraim  men- 
aced the  victorious  Gideon,  because  he  had  not 
summoned  them  to  the  first  onset  against  the  Mid- 
ianites  ;  and  were  only  turned  aside  by  his  adroit 
reply,  "  Is  not  the  gleaning  of  the  grapes  of  Ephraim 
better  than  the  vintage  of  Abiezer  ?  "  since  they  had 
done  great  slaughter  in  the  pursuit.  Assaulting 
Jephthah  for  the  same  cause  of  offended  pride,  they 
brought  on  that  sanguinary  feud,  in  which  forty-two 
thousand  of  them  were  slain  at  the  fords  of  Jordan, 
—  known  by  the  test-word  Shibboleth  ;  for  in  their 
dialect  it  was  Sibboleth,  and  "  they  could  not  frame 
to  pronounce  it  right." 

Benjamin,  the  youngest  and  favourite  in  the  legend, 
lay  guarded,  as  it  were,  by  Joseph's  stronger  arm. 
He  occupied  a  territory  small  in  space,  but  crowded 
with  religious  and  heroic  recollections  ;  the  sacred 
Bethel  lying  on  its  northern  frontier,  and  on  the 
south  the  fortressed  site  of  Moriah.  Of  all  the 
tribes  Benjamin  was  fiercest  in  war,  and  trained  to 
the  most  skilful  handling  of  sword  and  sling.  These 
three  make  up  the  family  of  Rachel. 

Judah  proudly  claimed  for  his  portion  Hebron  and 
the  strong  hill-country  of  the  Amorites  and  giants  in 
the  south.  Here  Caleb,  the  compeer  of  Joshua  in 
desert  warfare  and  the  conquest,  held  his  own  with  a 
strong  hand  ;  and  Othniel  his  son-in-law,  who  had 
won  the  hero's  daughter  Achsah  by  his  capture  of  a 
fortified  town,  received  "  the  upper  springs  and  the 
nether  sprnigs  "  for  his  portion,  and  became  the  first 
Judge,  or  Champion  of  Israel.  "  And  Jehovah  was 
with  Judah,  and  he  drave  out  the  inhabitants  of  the 


SETTLEMENT   OF   THE   TRIBES.  77 

mountain,  but  could  not  drive  out  the  inhabitants 
of  the  valley,  because  they  had  chariots  of  iron." 
Simeon  (whose  force  had  been  crippled  by  great 
losses  in  the  perilous  marches  of  the  desert*)  be- 
came a  subordinate  ally,  and  was  gradually  merged 
in  the  stronger  tribe.  So  Judah  became,  from  the 
first,  to  a  good  degree  independent  of  the  rest,  secur- 
ing peace  at  times  by  separate  treaties.  His  name  is 
not  once  mentioned  in  the  catalogue  of  the  tribes 
given  in  the  song  of  Deborah ;  while  the  idyllic  tale 
of  Ruth  seems  to  show  the  far  greater  quiet  and  se- 
curity that  prevailed  in  this  southern  confederacy. 

The  younger  sons  of  Leah,  Issachar  and  Zebulon, 
flanked  these  central  portions  towards  the  north ; 
while  those  of  less  honourable  descent,  Naphtali, 
Dan,  and  Asher,  lay  on  the  remoter  borders,  where  no 
local  recollections  pledged  them  to  the  national  faith. 
Once,  in  time  of  imminent  peril,  Dan  betook  himself 
to  his  ships,  as  if  for  flight ;  while  Asher  "  continued 
by  the  shore,  and  lingered  in  his  bays."  The  same 
recreant  temper  is  stigmatized  in  the  strain  of 
Jacob's  prophecy  which  applies  to  Issachar. 

East  of  the  Jordan  was  a  pasturing  country, — 
the  wide  plains  of  Moab  and  Ammon  stretching  to- 
wards the  desert  and  the  Euphrates.  This  was  the 
land  of  Gilead.  Here  dwelt,  with  uncertain  bounda- 
ries, the  nomadic  tribes  that  would  not  part  with 
the  lawless  freedom  of  the  desert,  —  Eeuben,  Gad, 
and  half  of  Manasseh,  —  who  lived  in  tents  long  after 
the  time  of  David.     Gilead  was   peopled,  said   the 

*  Of  nearly  forty  thousand  men,  comparing  Numbers  i.  23  and 
xxvi.  14. 


78  THE  JUDGES. 

western  tribes,  with  their  own  runaways.  There  was 
always  danger  of  their  complete  estrangement  and 
separation  from  the  rest.  Once,  hearing  that  they 
had  built  on  that  side  "  a  great  altar  to  see  to,"  the 
other  tribes  were  on  the  point  of  declaring  war  to 
compel  their  reluctant  loyalty ;  and  were  only  paci- 
fied by  the  assurance  that  the  altar  was  not  for  sacri- 
fice, but  only  as  a  memorial  of  the  one  God  of  Israel.* 
The  Oracle  or  Prophecy  ascribed  to  the  dying 
Jacob  may  be  taken  as  a  Catalogue  of  the  Tribes  in 
their  recent  settlement.  It  thus  becomes  a  link, 
connecting  the  later  history  with  the  patriarchal  or 
legendary  memories,  and  is  one  of  the  most  impor- 
tant monuments  of  the  earliest  period  of  Hebrew 
literature.  Its  vivid  portraiture  of  the  tribes,  and 
the  equal  eminence  it  assigns  to  the  two  great  rivals, 
together  with  the  disguised  taunt  of  its  appeal  to  the 
"  sleeping  lion  "  of  Judah,  seem  to  assign  it  to  this 
portion  of  the  history;  at  any  rate,  to  an  age  pre- 
ceding the  monarchy.! 

ORACLE    OF    JACOB. t 

Then  Jacob  called  his  sons  to  him,  and  thus  the  old  man  said  : 
"  Come  near  me  now,  and  hear  what  shall  befall  when  I  am  dead. 
Come,  sons  of  Jacob,  near  me  now  ;  about  my  death-bed  gather, 
And  hearken  to  the  prophecy  of  Israel  your  father. 

*  See  Joshua,  chap.  xxii. ;  Judges  xii.  4  ;  2  Kings  xiii.  5 ;  1  Chron. 
V.  10. 

t  The  contrast  of  its  tone  with  that  of  a  later  period  will  be  seen  by 
comparing  it  with  the  "Oracle  of  Moses"  (Deut.  chap,  xxxiii.),  in 
which  the  tribal  characteristics  are  mostly  faded  Out ;  especially  with 
regard  to  the  tribes  of  Levi  and  Benjamin. 

X  Genesis  xlix.  1-28. 


(B??u 


OEACLE   OF   JACOB.  79 


"  My  first-born,  Reuben,  might  of  my  young  prime,  — 

How  like  unstable  water  is  it  fled, 
Thy  excellent  dignity  and  power  !  —  his  crime, 

To  stain  the  honour  of  his  father's  bed. 

"  Next,  Simeon  and  Levi,  —  brothers  they,  — 

Sharp  were  their  swords  and  instruments  of  death. 

My  soul  went  not  along  their  secret  way, 
Nor  of  their  plot  mine  honour  reckoneth. 

In  rage  and  violence  a  man  they  slay  : 
As  hamstrung  oxen  fall  he  perisheth. 

Cursed  was  the  strife,  —  their  bloody  vengeance  cursed 

In  Israel  they  are  scattered  and  dispersed. 

"  Thy  brethren,  Judah,  shall  give  honour  to  thee  : 

Thy  hand  shall  smite  their  neck  who  do  thee  wrong. 
Thy  father's  children  shall  bow  down  before  thee, 

Judah,  my  son !  thou  lion  young  and  strong  ! 
Returning  from  the  spoil,  behold  him  where 
He  couches,  like  a  lion  in  his  lair,  — 
A  lion  fierce,  —  to  rouse  him  who  shall  dare  ? 
From  him  the  sceptre  shall  not  pass  away, 

Nor  from  his  hand  the  stafi"  of  dignity. 
Till  ye  to  Shiloh  come,  your  place  of  rest ; 

There  shall  the  gathering  of  the  people  be. 
Among  the  clustering  grapes  his  foal  he  binds, 
His  ass's  colt  beside  the  fruitful  vines. 
Bathed  are  his  garments  in  the  wine-vat  red, 
His  robes  in  crimson  that  the  grapes  have  bled. 
His  teeth  are  whiter  than  new  milk,  and  shine 
His  eyes  with  brightness  of  the  ruddy  wine. 

"  The  home  of  Zebulon  is  by  the  sea  : 

His  dwelling  near  the  haven  of  ships  shall  be  : 

To  Zidon  he  shall  stretch  his  boundary. 

"  A  sturdy  Ass  and  strong  is  Issacbar, 
Between  two  burdens  bending. 


80  THE  JUDGES. 

He  saw  that  rest  was  sweet,  —  the  land  was  fair ; 
He  bowed  his  stubborn  shoulder  down  to  bear,  — 
Service  and  tribute  lending. 

"  Dan  rules  —  a  judge  —  the  tribes  of  Israel  ; 

Dan  lurks  —  a  serpent- — by  the  wayside  wall, — 
A  coiling  snake  that  bites  the  horse's  heel ; 

Rider  and  horse  together  backward  fall. 

"  Gad  is  a  troop  :  a  troop  shall  make  him  fly, 
But  at  the  last  he  troops  to  victory. 

"  Rich  is  the  bread  from  Asher's  fertile  field, 
And  royal  dainties  shall  his  harvests  yield. 

"  A  slender  fallow-deer  is  Naphtali : 
His  is  the  gift  of  pleasant  minstrelsy. 

"  Joseph,  —  a  fruitful  tree  beside  a  spring. 

Whose  boughs  above  the  garden  wall  expand  ! 
By  archers  hated,  hunted,  hurt,  —  yet  strong 

Bears  he  the  bow  ;  strong  is  his  arm  and  hand ! 
Stayed  by  the  hands  of  Jacob's  Mighty  One, 
By  Israel's  Shepherd,  and  his  Corner-Stone, 
Thy  father's  God  who  ever  helpeth  thee, 
The  Almighty  who  shall  bless  and  prosper  thee, 
Thine  are  the  blessings  from  the  skies  above. 
Thine  are  the  blessings  from  the  deeps  below, 
The  blessings  of  the  breast  and  of  the  womb  ! 
Thy  father's  benediction  shall  prevail 
Above  the  blessings  of  the  eternal  mountains, 
The  glory  of  the  everlasting  hills ! 
Such  blessings  crown  the  exile  Joseph's  head,  — 
His  brow,  who  lone  and  far  a  slave  was  led ! 

"  Last,  Benjamin  —  a  ravening  Wolf — by  day 
Devours  the  spoil ;  at  night  divides  the  prey." 

Now  these  are  all  the  brother  tribes,  twelve  sons  of  Israel ; 
And  thus  their  father  spake  to  them  ;  he  blessed  and  spake  them 
well. 


LOSS   OF  NATIONALITY.  81 

So  the  twelve  sons  of  Israel  had  their  settlement 
in  the  land,  —  divided  now,  and  estranged.  Each 
secured  as  he  best  could  his  precarious  footing  on  the 
soil  he  had  got  by  the  sword  and  must  keep  by  the 
sword ;  each  forfeited  more  or  less  of  the  stern  Israel- 
itisli  faith,  securing  the  conditions  of  existence  by 
more  or  less  base  terms  of  compromise.  Very  dis- 
united and  disloyal  were  the  tribes.  Their  distracted 
and  humbled  condition  matched  their  recreant  tem- 
per. In  the  days  of  Shamgar,  —  who,  tradition  said, 
slew  six  hundred  Philistines  with  an  ox-goad,  i.  e.  at 
the  head  of  a  half-armed  peasantry,  —  "  there  were 
no  highways  in  Israel,  and  the  travellers  walked  in 
by-ways."  So  deplorable  was  their  position  of  de- 
pendence among  the  hostile  populations,  that  at  one 
time  "  there  was  no  smith  in  Israel ;  but  they  went 
down  to  the  Philistines,  to  sharpen  every  man  his 
share,  and  his  coulter,  and  his  axe,  and  his  mattock." 
The  proud  tribe  of  Judah,  which  had  even  then 
withdrawn  from  the  rest  in  a  sullen  and  separate 
nationality,  degraded  itself  so  far  as  to  deliver  up 
bound  the  great  champion  Samson,  on  the  Philis- 
tine summons,  and  to  plead,  as  an  excuse  to  its 
treachery,  that  they  were  masters  of  the  land.* 

As  an  example  of  the  temper  of  the  time,  and  of 
the  sudden  animosities  that  now  and  then  broke  out 
among  the  tribes,  the  following  is  related.  In  re- 
venge for  a  shocking  outrage  done  by  a  mob  at 
Gibeah,  the  tribe  of  Benjamin  had  been  almost 
wholly  cut  off  by  a  combined  assault,  —  all  but  a 
band  of  six  hundred  men,  who  held  out  in  a  sort  of 

♦Judges  iii.  31,  y.  6,  xv.  11  j  1  Samuel  xiii.  19,  20. 


82  THE    JUDGES. 

garrison.  Then  the  people  relented.  They  were 
struck  with  remorse  that  a  tribe  should  perish ;  but 
had  taken  an  oath  not  to  intermarry  with  them,  and 
the  Benjamite  women  had  all  been  slain.  To  build 
up  the  lost  tribe  without  violating  a  sacred  pledge, 
their  expedient  was  to  massacre  the  inhabitants  of  a 
town  that  had  not  joined  in  their  ferocious  crusade 
and  their  oath,  and  to  take  the  virgin  captives  as 
wives  of  the  Benjamites  ;  then,  to  make  good  what 
was  still  wanting,  they  violently  dragged  off  two 
hundred  maidens,  who  came  to  join  in  some  relig- 
ious festival  at  Shiloh.* 

The  desperate  struggle  by  which  the  land  was  won 
from  its  ancient  masters  was  quickly  over.  Simi- 
larity of  language  and  customs,  and  a  nearer  kinship 
of  blood  (doubtless)  than  the  conquerors  would 
acknowledge,  brought  the  two  races  into  something 
like  amity.  After  the  memorable  defeat  of  the  five 
allied  kings  in  the  vale  of  Ajalon,  no  powerful  native 
leagues  harassed  the  victorious  people.  Some,  in- 
deed, clung  obstinately  to  their  ancient  footholds,  till 
exterminated  long  afterwards  by  Solomon,  with  aid 
from  Egypt.  Some,  after  the  conquest,  fled  to  Libya  ; 
some  withdrew  to  the  coasts -of  Sidon.  But  in  the 
main,  Canaanite  and  Israelite  seem  to  have  coalesced. 
Distinctions  of  race  were  lost  in  intimate  family 
alliances.  Differences  of  faith  were  merged  in  com- 
munity of  rites  ;  and  the  people  of  Jehovah  were 
content  to  "  serve  Baalim  and  the  groves."  Old 
antipathies  of  blood  were  forgotten,  in  dangers  that 
menaced  all  alike  ;  and  tlie  two  populations  made 

*  Judges,  chaps,  xx.,  xxi. 


INVASION  OF   CANAAN.  83' 

common   cause   against  more   formidable  invaders, 
who  came  upon  them  from  abroad.* 
Six  such  invasions  are  recounted. 

1.  Cushan  Rishathaim,  king  of  Mesopotamia,  held 
the  land  in  subjection  for  eight  years  ;  till  Jehovah 
i:aised  up  Othniel,  nephew  and  son-in-law  of  Caleb, 
as  a  deliverer.  He  drove  out  the  invader,  and  gave 
the  land  rest  for  forty  years. 

2.  Next,  Eglon,  king  of  Moab,  oppressed  the 
Israelites  for  eighteen  years ;  till  Ehud  the  Ben- 
jamite,  a  crafty,  vigorous,  left-handed  man,  being 
sent  to  carry  the  tribute,  and  pretending  a  secret 
message  to  the  king,  despatched  him  with  a  dagger, 
and  proclaimed  a  rescue. 

3.  Then,  after  a  respite  of  eighty  years  (includ- 
ing Shamgar's  championship),  they  were  oppressed 
for  twenty  more,  under  the  king  of  the  north 
country,  where  the  more  compact  force  of  the  Phoe- 
nicians had  tamed  the  valour  of  the  frontier  tribes. 
But  the  strong-hearted  prophetess  Deborah  roused 
the  people  with  her  patriotic  and  impassioned  ap- 
peals. In  a  great  battle  at  Megiddo,  near  the  brook 
Kishon  (then  swollen  by  the  spring-freshets  into  a 
headlong  torrent),  Sisera  was  discomfited  with  all 
liis  host.  His  array  of  nine  hundred  chariots  of 
iron  was  broken  and  dispersed.  Sisera  himself, 
fleeing  away  on  foot,  sought  shelter  in  the  tent  of 
Heber  the  Kenite  ;  where  Jael,  Heber's  wife,  smote 
him  in  his  sleep  with  a  tent-pin  through  the  brain, 
and  nailed   him   dead  to  the  ground.      The  fierce 

*  "  Kings  of  the  provinces,"  or,  as  has  been  suggested,  satraps  of 
the  new  empire  of  Ninus. 


84  THE  JUDGES. 

triumphant  song  of  Deborah,  —  at  once  the  earliest 
and  finest  specimen  of  the  Hebrew  ballad,  —  with  its 
scorn  of  the  coward  tribes  that  would  not  come  to 
the  rescue,  its  exulting  boast  of  the  victory,  and  its 
pitiless  sarcasm  at  the  anguish  of  the  mothers  and 
families  of  the  slain,  presents  by  far  the  most  vivid 
picture  we  have  of  the  condition  and  temper  of  that 
time. 

SONG     OF     DEBORAH.* 

There  Sisera  lay  dead,  and  in  his  temples  was  the  nail. 
So  did  our  God  make  Israel's  hand  to  prosper  and  prevail, 
Till  Jabin,  king  of  Canaan,  was  defeated  utterly. 
Then  Deborah  and  Barak  sang  this  song  of  victory :  — 

"  Now  Israel's  champions  are  gone  forth.   Thank  God,  the  people 

came! 
Hear,  kings !  hear,  princes !  while  I  sing  Jehovah's  mighty  name. 

"Jehovah!   when  thou  wentest  forth  from   Seir,  from  Edom's 

plain, 
The  earth  did  quake,  the  skies  dropt  dew,  the  clouds  poured 

floods  of  rain ; 
The  mountains  melted  from  before  Jehovah's  awful  face  ; 
Yea,  Sinai,  when  the  God  of  Israel  visited  the  place. 

"  In  the  days  of  Shamgar,  Anath's  son,  and  Jael,  all  the  highways 
Were  empty  and  forsaken,  and  the  wanderers  walked  in  by-ways. 
The  gatherings  of  Israel  ceased,  —  for  sore  the  people  feared,  — 
Till  I,  a  mother  in  the  land,  I,  Deborah,  appeared. 

"  They  had  chosen  them  strange  gods ;  war  at  their  gates  was 

raging  then ; 
Ko  spear  or  shield  was  seen  among  their  forty  thousand  men. 

*  Judges,  chap.  v. 


SONG   OF  DEBORAH.  85 

"  To  you,  O  Israel's  leaders  !  turns  my  heart,  —  ye  came  so  free  ! 
Sing  praises  to  Jehovah !  sing  triumphantly  with  me  ! 
Sing,  ye  that  ride  on  asses  white,  and  sit  on  vestments  gay ;  * 
And  ye  that  walk  secure,  with  none  to  harm  you  by  the  way ! 

"  The  voice  of  herdsmen,  watering  their  cattle  by  the  springs  !f 
Where  the  battle  was  most  hotly  fought  the  shout  of  victory 

rings ! 
The  people  of  Jehovah  were  hard  pressed ;  but  let  them  teU 
The  goodness  of  Jehovah,  —  his  good  work  for  Israel ! 

"  Arouse  thee,  Deborah  !  awake !  sing  the  triumphal  song ! 
Rise,  Barak,  son  of  Abinoam !  lead  thy  captive  trains  along  ! 
A  remnant  fought  the   mighty ;    but   our   God   withstood   the 
strong ! 

"  First,   Ephraim   came,   towards    Amalek ;  J  next,   Benjamin's 

trained  bands ; 
Then  Machir's  §  chiefs,  and  Zebulon's,  with  truncheons  in  their 

hands ; 
With  Deborah  followed  Issachar,  his  captains  and  his  men ; 
Issachar's  footmen,  —  Barak  led  them  down  upon  the  plain. 

"  By  Reuben's  brooks,  brave  words,  grave  looks  !  why  sit  among 

your  cattle  ? 
To  hear  the  shepherd's  piping  V  do  ye  fear  the  shout  of  battle  ? 
Gad  beyond  Jordan  with  his  sheep,  Dan  by  his  shipping  stays ; 
Asher  keeps  snugly  by  the  shore,  and  lingers  in  his  bays. 
But  Zebulon  will  jeopard  his  life,  and  so  will  Naphtali, 
Where  death  is  deepest  on  the  field,  press  forward  dauntlessly ! 

"  At  Taanach,  by  Megiddo's  stream,  the  kings  of  Canaan  fought ; 
Fiercely  they  fought,  yet  found  they  not  the  booty  that  they 
sought. 

*  The  equipage  of  magistrates  in  Israel, 
t  Herder's  version. 

t  A  mountain  in  the  territory  of  Ephraim. 
^  Manasseh. 


86  THE  JUDGES. 

From  heaven  they  fought !     Stars  In  their  courses  fought  with 

Sisera ! 
Old  Kishon's   flood,  —  swift  Kishon's  flood,  —  it  swept  his  host 

away ! 
O,  then  we  smote  and  trampled  down  proud  Canaan's  men  of 

might, 
And  loud  and  fleet  the  horse-hoofs  beat  that  sped  their  captain's 

flight ! 

"  Curse  ye  Meroz,  said  God's  angel  then ;  ay,  curse  the  coward 

clan 
That  came  not  to  Jehovah's  aid,  that  sent  not  spear  nor  man ! 

"  But  Jael,  Heber's  wife,  above  all  women  blessed  be  ! 

Of  all  the  tribes  that  dwell  in  tents,  no  woman  such  as  she  ! 

He  asked  to  drink:  with  brimming  bowl  the  creamy  milk  she 

gave; 
Her  left  hand  held  the  spike,  —  her  right  the  heavy  hammer 

drave! 
The  hammer  smote  proud  Sisera  through  the  brain  and  through 

the  head : 
At  her  feet  he  bowed,  he  fell,  he  lay ;  at  her  feet  he  dropt  down 

dead! 

"  From  her  window  cries  his  mother,  —  where  the  lattice  half 

conceals,  — 
*  Why  tarry  my  son's  chariots  ?  why  delay  his  chariot-wheels  ?  * 
'Must  they  not  then,'  her  ladies  say,  ' find  and  divide  the  prey? 
Each  man  his  captive  maid  or  two ;  rich  robes  for  Sisera,  — 
A  prize  of  bright  embroidered  robes,  fine  wrought,  with  curious 

toil,  — 
Richly  embroidered,  scarlet  robes,  the  glory  of  the  spoil  ? ' 

"  So  perish  all  thine  enemies,  Jehovah  I  but  may  those 
Who  honour  thee  be  like   the  sun  when  forth  in  strength  he 
goes ! " 

So  fell  King  Jabin's  host  that  day.     Our  God  from  all  our  fears 
Delivered  us,  and  Israel  had  rest  for  forty  years. 


MIDIANITES.  87 

4.  But  a  far  more  terrible  assault  was  made  by  the 
predatory  nations  of  the  east  and  south.  The  Mid- 
ianites  were  a  tribe  long  known  in  the  desert-country, 
"  half  traders,  half  marauders,  like  the  Carthagin- 
ians." It  was  a  band  of  them  that  had  carried  Jo- 
seph as  a  slave  to  Egypt ;  and  among  the  later  acts 
of  Moses  had  been  a  desperate  conflict  with  them,  in 
which  the  bloody  orders  were,  not  to  leave  a  male 
creature  of  them  alive.  They  were  a  tribe  not  pow- 
erful in  numbers,  but  formidable  for  alacrity  and  cun- 
ning. They  had  the  skill  to  put  themselves  at  the 
head  of  immense  marauding  parties  of  the  roving 
populations  of  the  desert ;  and  then  their  visitation 
was  like  that  of  a  pestilence,  or  the  terrible  scourge 
of  locusts.  For  seven  years  the  country  was  deso- 
lated by  such  an  invasion.  "  The  Midianites  came 
up,  and  the  Amalekites,  and  the  children  of  the  East, 
and  encamped  against  them,  and  destroyed  the  in- 
crease of  the  land,  as  far  as  [the  seacoast  at]  Gaza ; 
and  left  no  sustenance  for  Israel,  neither  sheep,  nor 
ox,  nor  ass ;  for  they  came  up  with  their  cattle  and 
their  tents,  like  locust-swarms  for  multitude ;  for  both 
they  and  their  camels  were  without  number  ;  and 
they  entered  into  the  land  to  destroy  it."  If  they 
gave  such  respite  that  the  wretched  inhabitants  ven- 
tured to  crawl  out  of  "  the  dens  of  the  mountains  and 
caves  and  strongholds"  where  they  hid  themselves, 
and  sow  their  fields,  presently  a  fresh  horde,  with 
camels  and  horses,  trampled  through  the  land  again, 
and  devoured  or  trod  to  pieces  the  rising  crop. 

Then  Jehovah  took  pity  at  the  cries  of  the  dis- 
tressed and  impoverished  people,  and  called  Gideon, 


88  THE  JUDGES. 

of  the  tribe  of  Manasseh,  to  the  rescue.  He  was  Je- 
hovah's champion  in  a  double  sense  :  for,  first,  by  a 
bold  act  of  religious  zeal,  he  destroyed  the  grove  and 
altar  of  Baal,  at  Ophrah  ;  and  then,  at  the  head  of 
three  hundred  trusty  men,  surprised  the  Midianite 
camp,  and  put  their  countless  forces  to  rout.  It 
was  while  he  "  threshed  wheat  by  the  wine-press,  to 
hide  it  from  the  Midianites,"  and  brooded  on  the  he- 
roic memories  of  his  people,  and  their  present  hu- 
miliation, that  "Jehovah's  messenger"  came  to  him, 
and  he  received  his  commission  as  deliverer  of  Israel. 
His  tempered  and  steadfast  courage,  unmoved  by  the 
elation  or  despondency  of  those  about  him,  is  strik- 
ingly symbolized  by  the  "  sign  "  given  him,  —  that  his 
fleece  remained  dry  when  a  thick  dew  lay  on  all  the 
ground,  and  was  wringing  wet  when  all  the  field 
around  was  dry.  In  four  hard-fought  battles  he  so 
utterly  cut  to  pieces  that  Midianite  alliance  that  it 
never  afterwards  menaced  the  Hebrew  territory.  His 
rich  spoil  of  "  golden  ear-rings,  ornaments  and  col- 
lars, and  purple  raiment  that  was  on  the  kings  of 
Midian,  and  chains  that  were  on  their  camels'  necks," 
he  made  into  a  sacred  ephod,  or  breastplate,  which  at 
once  attracted  the  eager  superstition  of  the  tribes. 
They  would  have  made  him  king,  but  he  said,  "  Not 
I  or  my  son,  but  Jehovah,  shall  rule  over  you  ;  "  and 
accepted  only  their  spontaneous  obedience  as  judge, 
—  by  far  the  greatest  of  that  line  before  Samuel. 

Of  his  sons,  the  worst  of  all,  the  base-born  Abime- 
lech,  prevailed  so  far  on  the  general  gratitude  to  his 
father's  memory  as  to  slay  sixty-nine  of  his  seventy 
brothers,  and  to  make  a  premature  and  tyrannous  dis- 


JEPHTHAH.  89 

play  of  royalty ;  but  this  was  speedily  overthrown. 
Jotham's  fable  of  the  trees  in  council  to  choose  a 
king,  and  the  absurd  pretensions  of  a  bramble-bush 
when  fruit  and  forest-tree  had  declined  the  dignity, 
is  the  most  notable  relic  of  that  abortive  monarchy. 
The  victories  of  Gideon  had  given  rest  to  the  land 
for  another  term  of  forty  years. 

5.  Next,  the  eastern  tribes  beyond  the  Jordan  suf- 
fered for  many  years  by  the  invasion  of  the  Ammon- 
ites, from  the  northeast  country  near  Damascus. 
Ammon,  in  the  patriarchal  genealogy,  is  the  son  of 
Lot,  and  younger  brother  of  Moab,  —  that  is  to  say, 
a  feebler  tribe,  or  one  unknown  to  Israel  till  a  later 
day.  The  nomade  tribes  of  Gad  and  Reuben  doubt- 
less encroached  on  the  undefined  territory  of  Am- 
mon ;  and  the  source  of  quarrel,  as  would  seem  from 
the  curious  parley  before  battle,  was  traced  back  to 
the  time  when  Moses  drove  off  the  Amorites  and 
seized  the  land.  "  Ye  have  forsaken  me  and  served 
other  gods,"  said  Jehovah  to  the  Israelites,  when  they 
cried  for  mercy,  "  and  I  will  deliver  you  no  more. 
Go,  cry  to  the  gods  ye  have  chosen  :  let  them  deliver 
you  in  the  time  of  your  distress."  But  he  relented 
when  they  confessed  their  sin ;  "  his  soul  was  grieved 
for  the  misery  of  Israel ;  "  and  while  they  encamped 
in  Mizpeh  a  new  champion  appeared. 

Jephthah  the  Gileadite  had  been  an  outlaw  and  a 
refugee  ;  but  his  townsmen  were  glad  to  claim  his 
prowess  when  their  turn  of  misery  came,  and  to  take 
a  strict  oath  of  fidelity  to  him  as  their  chief.  Then 
"  the  spirit  of  Jehovah  came  upon  Jephthah,  and  he 
drove  back  the  invaders  with  a  very  great  slaughter, 


90  THE  JUDGES. 

and  smote  twenty  of  their  cities."  And  as  he  re- 
turned, his  daughter,  his  only  child,  came  out  to 
meet  him  with  timbrels  and  dances,  singing  with  her 
companions  his  song  of  victory,  after  the  manner 
of  the  time.  But  he  had  made  the  horrid  vow,  to 
sacrifice  as  a  burnt  offering  whoever  should  first 
"  come  forth  out  of  the  doors  of  his  house  to  meet 
him  when  he  should  return  in  peace,"  —  trusting, 
doubtless,  that  it  would  be  the  cheaper  ransom  of  a 
clansman  or  a  slave.  To  his  jealous  divinity  he 
durst  not  deny  the  offering,  but  "  did  with  her  ac- 
cording to  his  vow."  Exulting  still  that  at  least  her 
death  had  purchased  her  father's  victory,  the  brave 
girl  accepted  her  fate  ;  only  bewailing,  that,  maiden 
as  she  was,  none  should  live  after  her  to  share  his 
name  and  lineage.* 

6.  More  formidable  and  obstinate  than  all  the  rest 
was  the  hostility  which  Israel  now  encountered  from 
the  Philistines.  These  (to  trust  a  plausible  hypoth- 
esis) were  of  an  eastern  race  that  had  migrated 
in  former  times  from  Canaan  to  Crete,  where  they 
learned  the  Hellenic  or  Pelasgic  arts  and  manners 
of  the  time,  and  lost  something  of  their  native  cus- 
toms. They  were  an  uncircumcised  people,  like  the 
Greeks ;  and  worshipped  not  Baal,  or  the  Sun,  but 
Dagon,  or  the  Sea,  —  as  in  allusion  to  their  double 
migration.!     But  the  tie  of  blood  was  strong.     The 

*  The  lann;uagc  of  the  narrative,  borne  out  by  all  we  know  of  the 
time  and  people,  affords  no  pretext  for  withholding  the  darkest  inter- 
pretation of  this  act,  in  spite  of  the  natural  anxiety  of  critics  to  make 
out  a  better  case  for  the  Gileadite  chieftain.  Compare  Sophocles,  An- 
tigone^ 814  -  816,  916  -  920.     Euripides,  Hecuba,  416. 

t  As  likely,  perhaps,  as  any  interpretation  of  the  myth,  that  their 


PHILISTINES.  91 

memory  of  the  Jordan  was  preserved  in  the  name  of 
a  Cretan  river  ;  *  and,  when  occasion  summoned,  they 
came  back  to  the  coasts  of  Canaan,  —  perhaps  (to 
judge  from  some  obscure  hints  in  our  narrative  f)  to 
the  rescue  of  the  Avims  when  hard  pressed  by  the  Is- 
raehte  conquest,  —  like  the  Saxons,  subjugating  and 
ruling  those  they  came  to  serve.  Grecian  legend  J 
said  that  Minos,  son  of  Zeus  and  Europa,  had  ex- 
pelled from  Crete  a  barbarous  tribe  which  took  refuge 
in  Asia,  —  probably  a  portion  of  the  old  Shepherd 
race,  —  and  these  may  have  been  identical  with  the 
Philistines.  They  occupied  the  sea-coast  with  their 
five  strong  cities,  —  Gaza,  Ashdod,  Askalon,  Gath, 
and  Ekron.  Their  trade  gave  them  enterprise  and 
knowledge  of  foreign  arts ;  and,  as  the  best  known 
of  all  the  Canaanite  inhabitants  to  other  maritime  na- 
tions, they  gave  the  name  of  Palestine  to  the  entire 
region.  § 

As  a  seafaring  and  trading  nation,  their  policy 
was  peace.  Some  of  the  Hebrews,  and  especially 
the  tribe  of  Judah,  were  not  sorry  to  take  advantage 
of  their  superior  skill  in  the  arts,  even  at  the  cost 
of  subjugation  and  tribute.  But  either  the  ferocity 
of  the  earlier  conquest  had  created  an  inexpiable 
feud,  or  else  the  Philistines  followed  up  the  design 

tutelar  goddess  had  changed  herself  to  a  fish.  Their  name  has  been 
interpreted  as  signifying  "  wanderer."  See  Movers,  "  Die  Phonizer," 
Vol.  I.    Some  ancient  relation  with  Egypt  is  indicated  in  Genesis  x.  14. 

*  fj-)(i.  KuScofes  evaiov,  'lapddvov  dfx(^\  peeBpa.     Odyss.  III.  292. 

t  Compare  Deuteronomy  ii.  23  ;  Joshua  xiii.  3. 

X  Herodotus,  I.  173. 

§  Pococke  ("  India  in  Greece  ")  says  that  the  true  name  is  Pali-stan, 
or  Shepherd-land,  and  is  of  Sanscrit  derivation. 


92  THE  JUDGES. 

of  crowding  steadily  on  the  Hebrews,  so  as  to  win 
back  the  whole  territory  in  their  turn.  The  region 
they  now  occupied  was  already  claimed  by  Simeon 
and  Dan  ;  and  conflicting  titles  admitted  no  lasting 
peace.  Until  the  realm  was  settled  by  the  strong 
and  skilful  hand  of  David,  the  annals  record  only 
the  various  fortunes  of  one  long  campaign.  And 
even  then,  the  Cherethites  and  Pelethites  of  his  body- 
guard recalled  in  these  designations  the  name  of  the 
island  from  which  their  fathers  came,  and  the  title 
of  their  independent  nationality.* 

The  memories  of  this  long  warfare  are  among  the 
most  heroic  of  the  Hebrew  History.  It  was  the  Phil- 
istines of  whom  Shamgar  slew  six  hundred  with  no 
more  formidable  weapon  than  an  ox-goad.  They 
were  among  the  enemies  who  harassed  the  land  be- 
fore the  Ammonite  victories  of  the  Gileadite  Jeph- 
thah.  Before  the  ark  of  Jehovah,  their  fish-idol, 
Dagon,  had  twice  fallen  in  unwilling  homage,  and 
was  maimed  and  broken  on  the  threshold  of  his  own 
temple.  By  a  great  victory  over  them,  Samuel  re- 
vived the  expiring  nationality  of  Israel.  And,  in  a 
later  time,  their  giant  champion,  Goliath  of  Gath,  fell 
by  the  sling  and  smooth  stone  wielded  by  a  smooth- 
faced shepherd-boy. 

But  the  great  hero  of  the  Hebrew  people  in  their 
struggle  against  the  Philistines  was  Samson,  of  the 
tribe  of  Dan.  Marvels  were  told  of  his  birth  and 
his  prodigies  of  strength.  An  angel  had  announced 
his  coming ;  and,  for  a  sign  to  confirm  their  faith, 
his  parents'  sacrifice  flamed  of  itself  upon  the  rock, 

*  See  Winer,  art.  "  Crethi." 


SAMSON.  93 

and  the  angel  ascended  to  heaven  in  the  flame.  He 
was  bound,  from  his  childhood,  by  the  Nazarite  vow 
not  to  drink  wine  or  suffer  the  hair  of  his  head  to  be 
cut.  Going  down  to  Timnah,  to  his  bridal,  he  rent 
with  his  hands,  unarmed,  a  lion  that  roared  at  him 
on  his  way ;  and  to  pay  the  forfeit  of  his  wager,  that 
the  bridal  guests  should  not  answer  his  riddle,  he 
slew  thirty  men  of  Askalon,  and  brought  their  gar- 
ments to  their  countrymen.  When  his  bride  was 
given  to  another  man,  he  revenged  himself  by  send- 
ing three  hundred  jackals,  with  firebrands  at  their 
tails,  into  the  enemy's  standing  corn.  When  the 
men  of  Judah  had  basely  given  him  up,  bound  "with 
two  new  cords,"  rather  than  break  peace  with  "  the 
masters  of  their  land,"  and  in  their  deriding  triumph 
"  the  Philistines  shouted  against  him,  —  the  Spirit  of 
Jehovah  came  mightily  upon  him,  and  the  cords  that 
were  upon  his  arms  became  as  flax  that  was  burnt 
with  fire,  and  his  bands  loosed  from  off  his  hands ; 
and  he  found  a  new  jaw-bone  of  an  ass,  and  put 
forth  his  hand,  and  took  it,  and  slew  a  thousand  men 
therewith  !  "  Being  shut  up  at  night  in  the  town 
of  Gaza,  he  burst  through  the  city  gates,  "  and  went 
away  with  them,  bar  and  all,  and  put  them  upon  his 
shoulders, .  and  carried  them  to  the  top  of  an  hill 
that  looks  towards  Hebron."  And  when  at  last  he 
had  weakly  surrendered  his  secret  to  the  traitress 
Delilah,  and  was  shorn  of  his  locks  and  blinded,  and 
made  to  grind  in  the  prison-house,  —  a  task  for  a 
woman-slave,  —  and  taken  to  make  sport  on  a  feast- 
day  for  the  Philistines  by  the  exhibition  of  his  return- 
ing strength,  with  one  bitter  prayer  "  to  be  revenged 


94  THE  JUDGES. 

on  them  for  his  two  eyes,"  he  bowed  himself  upon 
the  pillars  of  the  house  where  they  were  assembled, 
and  crushed  the  whole  multitude  of  two  thousand 
beneath  its  ruins.  "  So  the  dead  which  he  slew  at 
his  death  were  more  than  they  which  he  slew  in  his 
life." 

These  are  the  last  of  the  heroic  recollections  of 
that  long  period  of  the  Judges.  With  fond  exaggera- 
tion they  are  thus  dwelt  upon  and  magnified,  as  a 
relief  to  the  deep  humiliation  of  almost  perpetual 
defeat.  Samson  was  the  hero  of  the  people.  The 
tales  of  his  prodigious  strength  are  set  off  with  the 
jesting  humour  and  ready  wit  that  befit  a  man  of  the 
people.  His  dissolute  morals,  that  put  him  again 
and  again  in  his  enemies'  power,  were  such  as  the 
popular  temper  easily  forgives ;  while  the  rude  val- 
our, and  the  levity  that  turned  these  chances  to  their 
mischief,  were  a  grateful  retaliation  for  their  success. 
In  the  favourite  style  of  popular  tales  of  prowess,  one 
man  is  pitched  against  a  nation  or  an  army ;  and  as 
in  a  later  generation  the  entire  host  is  said  to  trem- 
ble and  flee  before  Goliath,  to  magnify  the  youthful 
intrepidity  of  David,  so  (they  were  eager  to  tell)  the 
whole  Philistine  people  were  kept  in  terror  by  the 
single  arm  of  Samson.  He  was  backed  by  no  Israel- 
ite force.  He  had  no  authority  with  the  people  at 
large.  He  was  an  adventurer  and  an  outlaw, — 
scarce  known  beyond  his  tribe  of  Dan,  and  surren- 
dered to  Philistine  vengeance  by  the  treachery  of  his 
countrymen  who  chose  to  remain  at  peace.  In  his 
strange  history,  standing  thus  as  he  did  alone  and 
unrelieved,  we  have  tlie  clearest  illustration  of  the 


PROPHECY  AND   SONG.  95 

disorganized  condition  into  which  Israel  was  now 
fallen,  —  a  condition  scarcely  known  to  us,  except 
from  the  revolting  incidents  that  disfigure  the  close 
of  the  Book  of  Judges. 

But  during  these  centuries  of  humiliation,  and  the 
dissolution  of  the  bond  of  ancient  loyalty,  a  spirit 
had  nevertheless  been  growing  up,  destined,  under 
able  guidance,  to  work  the  regeneration  of  the  He- 
brew people.  The  Prophetic  gift  —  which,  as  under- 
stood among  the  Hebrews,  is  a  blending  of  religious 
and  poetic  fervour  with  the  power  of  addressing  ef- 
fectively the  popular  mind  —  has  been  justly  regarded 
as  a  distinguishing  characteristic  of  this  race.  If  not 
in  its  elements,  religious,  intellectual,  or  moral,  at 
least  in  its  quality,  and  its  preponderating  influence 
on  the  social  destinies  of  the  nation,  it  is  here  with- 
out a  parallel  in  history.  How  deep  is  the  religious 
colouring  of  all  Hebrew  thought  —  whether  historic, 
poetic,  martial,  or  meditative  —  there  is  no  need  of 
insisting  here.  In  these  times  that  gift  did  not  lie 
waste.  Save  the  few  scraps  and  fragments  of  popular 
song  which  may  be  plausibly  referred  to  the  time  of 
the  Conquest,  the  earliest  passages  of  Hebrew  litera- 
ture bear  the  clear  impress  of  this  age.  A  later  gen- 
eration was  hardly  likely  to  reproduce  the  vivid  feel- 
ing of  the  Song  of  Deborah,  or  to  retain  the  sharp 
characterizing  of  the  tribes  in  the  Oracle  of  Jacob. 
The  first  fragmentary  outlines  of  the  patriarchal  his- 
tory, and  the  national  Passover  Ode  which  bears  the 
name  of  Moses,  are  likewise,  with  some  show  of  prob- 
ability, conceived  as  belonging  to  this  period.  If  so, 
the  popular  mind  was  far  from  being  stagnant  during 


96  THE  JUDGES. 

those  long  passages  of  time  which  to  the  history  are 
an  titter  blank. 

Then  there  were  other  traits,  or  popular  habits, 
which  aided  in  preparing  for  the  larger  development 
of  Hebrew  life  that  was  in  store.  Popular  music,  of 
a  rude  yet  stirring  and  effective  character,  was  prac- 
tised on  all  festive  or  state  occasions.  The  timbrel 
and  dance  and  enthusiastic  song  were  part  of  the 
most  ancient  inheritance  of  the  race.  And  it  was  a 
generous  trait,  distinguishing  this  from  most  Oriental 
nations,  that  women  claimed  a  share,  freely  yielded 
them,  in  all  matters  of  public  interest ;  and  were 
often  the  controlling  or  saving  power  in  great  emer- 
gencies of  the  state.  Miriam  and  Deborah,  the 
daughter  of  Jephthah  and  the  mother  of  Samuel, 
are  instances  which  show  how  freely  and  heartily 
the  influence  of  women  entered,  as  one  of  the  motive 
powers  of  the  Hebrew  commonwealth ;  *  and  how 
the  freedom  of  their  position  was  often  met  with  a 
respect  and  delicacy  too  infrequent  in  the  life  of 
ancient  nations.  As  has  been  aptly  said,f  the  writ- 
ten history  of  this  period  is  the  narrative  of  its  dis- 
eases. The  unwritten  history,  as  we  can  here  and 
there  construct  it,  is  by  no  means  without  its  marks 
of  vigorous  health.  At  first  glance,  we  see  only  bar- 
barism and  misrule  everywhere  ;  but  presently  traces 
appear  of  a  genuine  popular  culture,  native  to  the 
blood  and  rooted  in  the  soiL 

*  The  "wise  woman"  (2  Sam.  xx.  16),  who  pledges  herself  to 
Joab  for  the  surrender  of  Maachah,  is  probably  an  example  of  this  elder 
Hebrew  spirit,  lingering  in  that  remote  border-district,  when  a  central- 
izing monarchy  had  altered  the  habits  of  the  more  southern  region. 

t  Kitto. 


RELIGIOUS  FEELING.  97 

Misfortune  and  defeat,  to  judge  from  our  meagre 
chronicle,  were  always  an  effectual  summons  to  the 
people's  conscience.  Recreant  and  superstitious  they 
might  be  ;  but  they  never  lost  the  conviction  that 
Jehovah  was  their  nation's  God,  —  a  conviction  truly 
inestimable,  when  the  later  prophetic  spirit  could 
assume  it  as  the  groundwork  of  a  still  loftier  appeal. 
The  fault  was,  that  with  servile  and  cruel  super- 
stition they  sought  to  propitiate  the  gods  of  other 
nations  too.  When  these  failed  them,  as  was  evident 
in  a  season  of  defeat,  they  came  back  with  ready 
zeal  to  the  service  of  their  own.  The  cause  of  the 
Hebrew  faith,  in  such  an  age,  was  alike  the  cause  of 
religion,  morals,  and  humanity.*  .  That  Jehovah  was 
regarded  as  2^  jealous  God,  —  using  the  strong  term 
that  denotes  the  temper  in  which  an  Oriental  hus- 
band guards  and  avenges  the  honour  of  his  wife, — 
had  at  least  this  good  effect,  that  it  was  a  standing 
appeal  to  the  nation's  loyalty,  or  sense  of  duty. 
How  the  image  was  carried  out  is  familiar  through 
the  writings  of  the  later  prophets. f  And  though,  to 
their  mind,  he  was  far  from  being  the  Infinite  God 
of  Philosophy,  or  the  Spiritual  Father  of  Christianity, 
yet  the  ethical  conditions  of  the  purer  and  loftier 
conception  were  already  found,  in  the  Hebrews'  faith 
towards  Jehovah,  the  God  of  their  Fathers,  who  ever 
was  and  is  the  same. 

The  revival  of  religious  loyalty,  after  the  deep  de- 
pression of  the  national  character,  had  already  begun 
to  manifest  itself  in  the  growing  consequence  of  the 
priesthood.     The  germ  of  what  we  call  the  Mosaic 

*  Newman.  Especially  Hosea. 


5 


G 


98  THE  JUDGES. 

Institutions  was  striking  root  and  taking  shape. 
Companies  of  priests  became  proprietors  of  towns 
and  districts,  —  as  we  see  in  the  example  of  Nob, 
—  carrying  out  to  some  extent  the  theory  of  the 
forty-eight  Levitical  cities :  and  there  were  sacred 
places  of  authentic  and  solemn  worship,  especially 
where  the  "  ark  of  God  "  was,  in  Shiloh. 

Eli,  at  once  Judge  and  High  Priest,  represents 
this  period.  Of  his  long  magistracy  —  "he  had 
judged  Israel  forty  years "  —  we  know  only  the 
sorrowful  and  shameful  close.  In  his  youth  he  may 
have  been  a  stout  champion  against  the  public  en- 
emy, —  since  by  some  stroke  of  successful  valour  the 
authority  of  that  position  was  generally  won  ;  but  in 
his  old  age  it  is  only  as  the  official  guardian  of  the 
sanctuary  that  we  know  him,  while  his  profligate 
sons  abuse  their  delegated  power,  and  tamper  pro- 
fanely with  the  sacred  things.  The  abused  and 
decrepit  administration  came  to  a  tragical  end. 
Being  worsted  in  battle  with  the  Philistines,  Hophni 
and  Phinehas  brought  the  holy  ark,  the  miost  sacred 
deposit  in  the  sanctuary,  to  the  Hebrew  camp ;  trust- 
ing either  to  its  magical  efficacy,  or  else  to  the  su- 
perstitious feeling  it  might  stimulate  on  both  sides. 
The  Philistines  rallied  from  their  first  terror.  The 
battle  was  speedily  decided.  The  ark  was  taken  ; 
Hophni  and  Phinehas  were  slain ;  and  their  wretched 
father,  at  the  news,  fell  back  from  his  seat  and  died. 

The  sanctuary  at  Shiloh  had  been  captured  and 
destroyed,  it  would  seem,  as  one  of  the  results  of 
this  disaster  ;  and  for  twenty  years  we  hear  of 
nothing   but   the   people's   deeper    humiliation.      It 


SAMUEL.  99 

was  relieved  in  part  by  the  restoring  of  the  ark  to 
Hebrew  soil ;  for  in  an  honr  of  rehgious  terror  the 
Philistines  had  sent  it  back  with  peace-oiferings.  A 
sacred  deposit  (according  to  the  ancient  feeling) 
must  work  either  good  or  harm.  They  believed  in 
its  mysterious  powers,  most  likely,  full  as  much  as 
the  Hebrews.  A  troublesome  epidemic,  and  a  plague 
of  field-mice  were  ascribed  to  the  captured  ark. 
Nay,  when  it  was  restored,  seventy  men  of  Beth- 
shemesh,  it  was  said,  ^  our  account  even  gives  it 
with  the  enormous  addition  of  fifty  thousand, — 
were  struck  dead  in  that  one  village  for  looking 
into  it.* 

But  in  these  twenty  years  "  the  child  Samuel '' 
had  grown  to  manhood.  Upon  him  all  the  hopes 
of  the  people  gradually  came  to  be  gathered.  His 
mother's  affectionate  and  watchful  piety  had  devoted 
his  life  from  infancy  to  the  temple-service.  And  that 
early  consecration,  made  only  the  more  intense  by 
the  dissolute  example  of  Eli's  sons,  was  now  ripened 
to  the  stern  spirit  of  self-consecration  which  fitted 
him  for  the  great  work  of  the  regeneration  of  Israel. 
With  the  reluctance  of  a  noble  and  clear  mind,  that 
measures  its  strength  against  the  magnitude  of  an 
almost  hopeless  task,  yet  with  a  resolute  will,  that 
never  wavered  or  relaxed  in  what  it  had  once  under- 
taken, he  accepted  the  commission  which  Providence 
as  it  were  compelled  upon  him,  —  to  be  the  Deliverer 
of  his  people  in  a  far  larger  sense  than  they  were 
ready  to  conceive. 

For,  as  Moses  was  the  founder,  Samuel  was  the 

*  1  Samuel  vi.  19. 


100  THE  JUDGES. 

restorer  of  the  Hebrew  character  and  institutions. 
His  is  next  in  the  line  of  sacred  and  illustrious  names. 
He  is  second  to  Moses  alone  in  that  austere  dignity 
which  after  ages  associate  with  his  memory ;  and  is 
represented  to  be  as  nearly  as  possible  his  equal  in 
the  decisive  acts  which  show  his  authority  and  power. 
Fond  tradition  related  him  to  have  been  the  watched 
and  guarded  favorite  of  heaven  from  a  child  ;  brought 
up  in  the  temple-service  ;  charged  in  the  night-visions 
with  the  terrible  message  of  doom  to  the  guilty 
family  of  Eli.  When  "  the  word  of  Jehovah  was 
precious,  and  there  was  no  open  vision,"  the  pro- 
phetic spirit  fell  on  Samuel.  "  Jehovah  was  with  him, 
and  did  let  none  of  his  words  fall  to  the  ground ; 
and  all  Israel,  from  Dan  even  unto  Beersheba,  knew 
that  he  was  established  to  be  a  prophet  of  Jehovah." 

He  now  called  a  gathering  of  the  people  at  Mizpeh, 
near  his  native  Ramah,  and  "judged  them  there." 
When  the  Philistines  mustered  a  great  host,  to  crush 
(as  they  had  so  often  done  before)  this  germ  of  rising 
nationality,  "  Jehovah  thundered  with  a  great  thun- 
der upon  them,  and  discomfited  them,  and  they  were 
smitten  before  Israel ; "  and  Samuel  set  up  a  stone 
for  a  trophy,  "  and  called  its  name  Eben-ezer,  saying, 
Hitherto  hath  Jehovah  helped  us." 

This  timely  victory  —  the  first  for  many  years, 
and  by  far  the  most  important  in  its  consequences 
since  the  days  of  Joshua  —  at  once  confirmed  the 
authority  of  Samuel  as  chief  of  Israel.  Loyal  tra- 
dition even  magnified  his  services,  by  adding,  that 
"  the  Philistines  came  no  more  into  the  coast  of 
Israel ;  and  the  hand  of  Jehovah  was  against  them 


SAMUEL.  101 

all  the  days  of  Samuel,"  —  a  statement  sufficiently 
contradicted  by  their  garrisons,  which  we  find  shortly 
after  almost  as  far  eastward  as  the  Jordan.  But 
his  personal  supremacy  was  not  questioned ;  and 
though  for  near  twenty  years  contemporary  with  the 
king  whom  the  people  compelled  him  to  appoint, 
"  Samuel  judged  Israel  all  the  days  of  his  life." 

It  is  not  so  much  in  the  acts  as;  iil  .the.  effects  of 
his  administration  that  we  perceive  tb^  ^xtraou'dinaiy 
vigour  and  power  of  the  man.  He  href^thgd  i-ntp'tlie 
soul  of  the  Israelite  people  the  fdrgbtten*  hope,  of 
being  really  masters  of  their  own  soil.  He  revived 
in  them  the  conception  of  Hebrew  institutions  on  the 
basis  of  national  independence.  He  inspired  that 
hopeful  and  resolute  intrepidity  which  was  for  them 
the  condition  of  developing  their  own  life  and  of " 
fulfilling  their  providential  mission  as  a  people.  So 
that  what  was  said  falsely  of  him  as  history  was 
spoken  truly  as  prophecy ;  for,  in  result  if  not  in 
immediate  act,  he  did  found  and  secure  the  free 
commonwealth  of  Israel. 

Necessarily,  from  the  genius  of  the  Hebrew  mind 
and  institutions,  and  of  an  age  when  no  other  than 
a  theocratic  civilization  could  be  so  much  as  thought 
of,  the  basis  he  sought  for  the  national  life  was  a 
religious  basis.  He  seems  to  have  entertained  the 
magnificent  but  impracticable  conception,  that  the 
real,  acknowledged  sovereign  of  Israel  should  be  the 
invisible  Divinity  and  Protector,  whose  arm  had 
guarded  the  nation  in  so  many  perils,  whose  spirit 
had  from  the  first  commissioned  and  inspired  its 
faithful  men  ;  and  that  the  actual  ruler  should  be 


102  THE  JUDGES. 

only  as  it  were  a  Regent,  or  Yiceroy,  of  this  unseen 
Sovereign.  How  greatly  he  was  disappointed,  when 
not  only  the  people  craved,  but  the  exigencies  of  the 
time  and  his  own  sons'  recreancy  demanded,  a  human 
king  to  lead  in  battle  and  wield  the  executive  force 
of  the  state,  the  after  history  shows.  The  almost 
fierce  severity  of  the  treatment  he  exercised  in  his 
old  age  .tow.ar'd  -Saul  (as  related  in  the  two  accounts 
of  his  *alibii'ali6«.'  from  him)  is  best  explained  from 
this  ^l«i:e  of  liis  loftiest  ideal,  and  the  forced  sur- 
tend'ei'  of' his  cherished  hope. 

One  inestimable  and  lasting  service  Samuel  ren- 
dered to  the  Hebrew  people,  by  which  he  has  won 
the  gratitude  of  all  the  world.  He,  more  than  any 
other  man,  was  the  father  of  the  long  line  of  Hebrew 
prophets.  The  office  of  Moses,  indeed,  in  the  rever- 
ent view  of  a  late  posterity,  finally  resolved  itself  into 
that  of  a  prophet,  —  a  conception  so  strikingly  pre- 
sented in  tlie  book  of  Deuteronomy  ;  but  his  true 
work  was  too  complicated  and  peculiar  to  admit  so 
definite  a  title.  The  prophetic  mantle  had  fallen  on 
Miriam  and  on  Deborah,  to  the  enduring  glory  of 
Hebrew  womanhood ;  and  special  messengers,  charged 
with  special  warnings,  appear  here  and  there  on  the 
page  of  the  scanty  annals.  But  under  Samuel  proph- 
ecy first  became  (so  to  speak)  a  Hebrew  institution 
and  a  fixed  fact.  Not  hereditary,  like  the  priesthood, 
or  of  man's  appointment,  as  any  magistrate's  func- 
tion, it  depended  essentially  on  a  divine  call,  and  on 
the  moral  aptitude  of  a  man's  soul.  Institutions 
could  only  guide,  train,  instruct,  and  put  to  actual 
service,  the  spirit  which  came  by  its  own  laws,  free 


THE  JUDGESHIP.  103 

as  the  unfettered  wind.  The  "  Schools  of  the  Proph- 
ets," with  their  music  strangely  fascinating,  and  their 
sacred  discipline,  their  gathering  and  concentrating 
of  the  fresh  religious  zeal  there  might  be  in  the  body 
of  the  people,  were  of  Samuel's  foundation.  Tliis 
institution  of  prophecy,  —  the  fountain-head  of  the 
world's  noblest  poetry,  and  in  after  times  the  bold 
protest  against  tyranny,  the  altar-fire  of  the  nation's 
faith,  the  sacred  hearth  and  shrine  of  a  hope  whose 
destined  fulfilment  was  in  one  who  should  be  the 
world's  spiritual  Sovereign,  and  the  Prince  of  Peace, 
—  is  the  magnificent  legacy  bequeathed  to  Humanity 
by  the  great  restorer  of  the  Hebrew  faith. 

But  while  labouring  thus  efiectively,  and  with  so 
large  a  hope,  for  the  remote  future,  the  mind  of  Sam- 
uel was  perplexed  by  present  and  pressing  anxieties. 
The  office  of  Judge  had  no  self-sustaining  dignity. 
Its  multitude  of  cares  could  not  be  shared  among 
subordinates.  Such  power  as  it  had  could  never  be 
a  delegated  power.  It  rested  solely  on  a  man's  per- 
sonal influence,  and  on  the  generally  felt  conviction 
of  his  Divine  commission  or  his  personal  superiority. 
Its  truest  basis,  as  well  as  its  noblest  representative, 
it  had  in  Samuel ;  and  the  failure,  with  all  his  com- 
manding qualities,  served  to  show  that  the  office  was 
no  longer  suited  to  the  public  need.  The  theocracy 
had  been  a  fact  with  Moses  ;  with  Samuel  it  was 
only  a  reminiscence  and  a  hope ;  as  with  the  later 
prophets  a  splendid  dream. 

It  was  a  heavy  grief  for  the  heroic  and  faithful 
Judge,  when  the  conviction  compelled  itself  upon 
him,  that  one  more  radical  change  must  be  made  in 


104  THE  JUDGES. 

the  government  of  the  state  ;  that  the  invisible  King 
with  human  regents  was  not  such  a  sovereign  as  the 
state  demanded  ;  that  the  grand  hope  and  noblest 
ambition  of  his  life  had,  as  it  were,  failed.  But  the 
notorious  incompetency  of  his  own  sons  (to  whom 
he  intrusted  the  administration  of  the  southern  bor- 
der), the  loud  complaints  of  the  people,  which  he 
was  wholly  unable  to  control,  and,  above  all,  another 
invasion  pressing  from  the  Ammonites  on  the  north- 
east, opened  his  eyes  at  length  to  the  unwelcome 
truth.  The  vision  of  a  theocratic  Republic  had 
proved  delusive.  The  name  and  traditionary  pres- 
tige of  royalty  must  be  bestowed  on  the  most  com- 
petent man ;  or  else  the  very  first  object  of  his  con- 
cern—  the  independence  of  the  state  itself — was 
forfeited. 

However  clear  and  imperative  the  necessity,  Sam- 
uel did  not  accept  it  without  a  struggle.  The  pain- 
ful vacillation  of  his  mind  is  curiously  reflected  in 
the  varying  statements  of  the  narrative.  By  one 
account,  he  vehemently  reproached  the  people  with 
disloyalty  to  Jehovah,  warning  them  at  much  length 
of  the  bitter  fruits  of  despotism ;  and  would  grant 
their  petition  only  at  the  express  command  of  God, 
who  took  that  method  of  chastising  them  for  their 
guilt.  By  another  account,  he  saw  the  need  at  once, 
selected  a  candidate  with  every  mark  of  confidence 
and  good-will,  and  inaugurated  the  new  dynasty  with 
elated  hope,  and  was  only  driven  into  opposition  by 
the  long-proved  unworthiness  of  Saul.* 

Whatever  may  have  been  Samuel's  sincere  reluc- 

*  1  Samuel,  chaps,  viii.,  x. 


SAUL.  105 

tance  or  apprehension,  the  people's  urgency  and  the 
impending  peril  of  the  state  at  length  prevailed. 
Saul,  the  son  of  Kish,  a  Benjamite,  was  anointed 
king.  The  reasons  of  policy  which  influenced  the 
choice  were  these  :  The  tribe  of  Benjamin  was  small, 
but  valiant.  Its  territory  lay  near  the  seat  of  Sam- 
uel's regency,  and  abounded  in  sacred  localities.  A 
choice  from  this  tribe  avoided  the  resentment  that 
might  be  felt  at  the  sullen  isolation  of  Judah,  or  the 
intolerable  arrogance  of  Ephraim,  as  well  as  their 
more  formidable  jealousy  of  each  other.  These  rea- 
sons were  fully  justified  by  the  feu^  which,  a  century 
later,  alienated  the  ten  tribes  from  the  house  of  Da- 
vid ;  though  the  personal  ascendency  of  the  two  great 
kings  had  long  reconciled  the  nation  at  large  to  the 
hated  supremacy  of  Judah. 

In  many  personal  qualities,  too,  Saul  amply  vindi- 
cated Samuel's  choice.  A  stately  and  commanding 
presence,  and  prompt  vigour  in  action,  were  enough 
to  win  at  once  the  popular  admiration.  His  politic 
magnanimity  put  a  stop  to  the  proposal,  started  upon 
his  first  victory,  to  take  vengeance  on  such  as  chose 
to  sneer  at  their  rustic  prince.  His  domestic  char- 
acter was  far  more  exemplary  than  that  of  any  other 
of  the  earlier  kings :  but  one  wife  of  his  is  men- 
tioned, and  one  of  inferior  rank,  whom  he  may  have 
taken  after  her  death,  —  a  striking  contrast  to  the 
loose  polygamy  of  David  and  his  successors.  The 
personal  attachment  towards  him  was  in  some  quar- 
ters so  strong  that  the  men  of  Gilead  risked  their 
lives  to  give  him  honorable  burial ;  and  more  than 
half  the   nation    clung   obstinately  to    the   fortunes 

5* 


106  THE  JUDGES. 

of  his  son  till  repelled  by  his  own  hopeless  inca- 
pacity. 

At  first,  too,  Saul  seems  to  have  heartily  co-operated 
with  the  religious  party.  He  built  altars  to  Jeho- 
vah, and  was  once  even  among  the  company  of  the 
prophets.  It  was  only  at  a  later  date  that  the  fatal 
and  implacable  feud  broke  out  which  cost  the  realm 
so  many  sorrows,  and  himself  his  crown  and  his  life, 
—  a  feud  which  bred  the  characteristic  suspicion  that 
Jehovah  had  selected  him  on  purpose  to  punish  the 
people  for  their  infidelity  in  demanding  a  king,  and 
had  repented  of  it  afterwards.* 

For  the  future,  Samuel  must  be,  not  the  nominal 
head,  but  only  the  chief  adviser,  in  public  affairs. 
His  presence  was  a  reminiscence  of  the  departed  or 
imagined  Theocracy  which  never  had  been  and  never 
could  be  fiilly  realized.  He  was  the  representative 
or  embodiment  of  the  spiritual  power,  which,  with 
boundaries  as  yet  unsettled  by  any  just  theory,  or 
implied  in  the  prescriptions  of  experience,  sought 
such  terms  with  the  temporal  power,  and  exerted 
such  independent  jurisdiction,  as  from  the  nature 
of  the  case  it  could. 

Saul's  personal  prowess  and  promptness  of  enter- 
prise were  manifest  in  the  exigency  that  first  called 
him  to  the  actual  leadership.  The  Ammonite  chief 
Nahash  had  summoned  the  beleaguered  town  of  Ja- 
besh  Gilead  to  surrender,  —  menacing  its  people,  that 
even  as  his  slaves  he  would  only  accept  them  after 
blinding  them  of  the  right  eye,  so  as  to  unfit  them 
for  war ;  and  scornfully  gave  them  leave  to  get  what- 

*  See  1  Samuel,  chap.  xii. ;  xiv.  35 ;  xv.  35. 


MILITARY  ACTS   OF   SAUL.  107 

ever  aid  they  could  from  the  distracted  and  helpless 
state  of  Israel.  The  tidings  came  to  Saul  as  he  was 
with  a  yoke  of  oxen  in  the  field.  At  the  word,  "  he 
took  the  oxen  and  hewed  them  in  pieces,  and  sent 
them  throughout  all  the  coasts  of  Israel  by  the  hands 
of  his  messengers,  saying.  Whosoever  cometh  not 
forth  after  Saul  and  after  Samuel,  so  shall  it  be  done 
to  his  oxen."  With  his  suddenly  mustered  force  he 
gained  so  complete  a  victory,  that  "  not  two  of  the 
enemy  were  left  together."  He  relieved  the  dis- 
tressed city ;  and  with  the  welcome  of  popular  en- 
thusiasm was  solemnly  crowned  king  in  the  ancient 
sacred  town  of  Gilgal. 

As  a  permanent  means  of  national  defence,  Saul 
organized,  within  two  years,  the  nucleus  of  a  stand- 
ing army,  —  a  small  regular  force  of  three  thousand 
men.  For  "  there  was  sore  war  against  the  Philis- 
tines all  the  days  of  Saul ;  and  when  Saul  saw  any 
strong  man,  or  any  valiant  man,  he  took  him  unto 
him."  Then  began  that  career  of  romantic  adven- 
ture, of  brilliant  partial  success  or  ignoble  failure, 
of  popular  terror  or  exultation,  which  made  memo- 
rable the  early  valour  of  Jonathan  and  the  chivalrous 
exploits  of  David.  The  Philistine  garrisons,  far  in 
the  interior  of  the  country,  struck  such  dismay  that 
the  people  retreated  once  more  to  the  mountain  re- 
cesses ;  and  "  did  hide  themselves  in  caves  and  in 
thickets  and  in  rocks  and  in  high  places  and  in 
pits  ;  and  some  of  the  Hebrews  went  over  Jordan 
to  the  land  of  Gad  and  Gilead.  As  for  Saul,  he 
was  yet  in  Gilgal,  and  all  the  people  followed  him 
trembling."      The   presence   of   a  foreign   ruler   is 


108  THE  JUDGES. 

doubtless  a  sorer  thing  in  a  war  for  independence 
when  he  comes  as  an  armed  enemy,  than  when  there 
is  peaceable  tax-paying  and  non-resistance.  But  in- 
dependence was  the  very  thing  Saul  had  been  chosen 
to  secure,  and  the  people  must  not  complain  of  the 
needful  severity  of  the  terms. 

Change  of  habit  and  intoxication  of  power,  coming 
so  suddenly  upon  a  grown-up  man  of  rustic  train- 
ing, might  well  unsettle  a  larger  intellect  and  more 
balanced  character  than  Saul's.  Vigorous  and  able 
in  the  stress  of  war,  he  seems  to  have  been  quite 
unfit  for  civil  administration.  Samuel,  as  became 
but  too  apparent,  had  been  unfortunate,  or  else  at 
fault,  in  selecting  a  man  whose  narrowness  of  mind 
made  him  at  once  unfit  for  any  large  responsibility, 
and  jealous  of  superior  ability  in  others.  A  breach 
began,  and  was  fast  widening,  between  the  incompe- 
tent king  and  the  adviser  to  whom  he  had  been  at- 
tached at  first  by  every  motive  of  gratitude  and 
respect.  Saul  became  moody  and  suspicious.  His 
jealous,  brooding  temper  was  subject  to  fits  of  mor- 
bid melancholy,  amounting  at  times  to  madness. 
*'  The  spirit  of  Jehovah  was  departed  from  Saul, 
and  an  evil  spirit  from  Jehovah  troubled  him." 
How  David,  "  the  sweet  singer  of  Israel,"  soothed 
him  with  harp  and  song  ;  and  how  Saul  at  first  loved 
him  as  a  son,  and  made  him  his  man-at-arms,  and 
then  was  jealous  of  his  prowess,  and  sought  to  kill 
him  unless  prevented  by  Jonathan's  vigilant  love, 
and  twice  repented,  with  fitful  nobleness  of  spirit, 
when  he  found  David  had  spared  his  life,  is  told 
in  that  most  varied  and  romantic  narrative  of  Scrip- 


SAMUEL  AND   SAUL.  109 

ture  biography  which  bears  the  name  of  Samuel. 
The  few  scattered  incidents  of  the  king's  career  are 
only  interspersed  among  the  personal  adventures  of 
him  who  was  the  true  representative  man  of  the  time, 
and  the  real  founder  of  the  Hebrew  monarchy. 

For  several  years  the  aged  prophet  and  the  wrong- 
headed  king  had  kept  such  uncertain  alliance  as 
they  might.  Samuel  retained  to  the  last  his  strong 
personal  ascendency.  In  the  course  of  time  he  had 
withdrawn  his  confidence  from  Saul ;  and  at  length, 
it  is  related,  he  carried  his  resentment  to  the  open 
act  of  nominating  an  antagonist  king  to  seize  his 
place  under  the  auspices  of  the  priesthood.  A  deed 
so  fatal  as  this  to  the  peace  and  integrity  of  the  king- 
dom was  not  at  any  rate  publicly  committed  ;  though 
Samuel,  by  the  symbolic  act  of  consecration,  may 
have  declared  how  fondly  his  hope  for  Israel  rested 
on  the  minstrel-boy,  —  probably  his  own  pupil  in  the 
school  of  sacred  minstrelsy,  —  the  youngest  son  of 
Jesse.  The  later  undisguised  antagonism  of  king 
and  prophet  is  referred  by  one  account  to  a  sacri- 
fice which  Saul  offered  when  Samuel  came  not  at 
the  appointed  time  ;  and  by  another  to  his  sparing 
the  spoil  of  the  Amalekites  and  their  king  Agag, 
whom  Samuel  thereupon  "hewed  in  pieces  before 
the  face  of  Jehovah ;  "  for  it  was  a  sacred  war,  a  war 
of  extermination,  and  in  it  there  must  be  no  booty.* 
Whatever  the  cause,  it  had  now  led  to  open  rupture. 

The  quarrel  involved  not  Samuel  alone,  but  the 
entire  class  he  represented.  The  king's  capricious 
and  insane  temper  exaggerated  every  favour  shown 

*  1  Samuel,  chaps,  xiii.,  xv. 


110  THE  JUDGES. 

to  his  fancied  rival  into  treason  against  himself. 
His  own  son  Jonathan  he  had  nearly  slain  at  a  ban- 
quet for  saying  a  word  in  behalf  of  his  banished 
friend.  He  armed  himself  against  the  popular  feel- 
ing by  a  foreign  body-guard.  Annoyed  at  the  influ- 
ence of  the  priesthood,  he  sought  to  make  head 
against  them  by  encouraging  alien  rites  of  worship. 
The  Gibeonites,  or  menials  of  the  sanctuary, — a  tribe 
spared  by  Joshua  in  a  treaty  they  had  fraudulently 
got,  and  thereafter  made  "  hewers  of  wood  and 
drawers  of  water"  for  the  conquerors,  —  became  the 
victims  of  his  cruelty.  When  he  learned  that  David 
had  received  food  and  shelter  at  the  priests'  city  of 
Nob,  he  sent  Doeg  the  Edomite,  captain  of  his  guard, 
to  do  a  deed  no  Hebrew  would  lift  his  hand  to,  and 
massacred  the  whole  company  of  priests,  amounting 
to  eighty-five,  together,  it  is  added,  with  every  living 
creature  in  the  place.  This  last  act,  more  than  any 
other,  cut  him  off  from  the  affection  of  a  people  only 
too  ready  to  overlook  his  faults,  who  could  not  but 
regard  him  with  horror  now.  The  crime  was  strictly 
expiated  in  his  own  fall,  and  in  the  ruin  of  his 
house. 

To  these  outbreaks  of  frantic  passion  Samuel 
opposed  only  his  grave  remonstrance,  and,  at  last, 
the  total  withholding  of  his  confidence.  "  The  only 
weapon  he  used  was  to  keep  aloof  from  Saul."  Awed 
by  his  austere  and  composed  superiority,  Saul  never 
once  attacked  him  ;  or,  if  he  had  designs  against 
liis  life,  when  Samuel  went  with  David  to  dwell  at 
Naioth,  yet  as  soon  as  he  came  near,  his  resolution 
forsook  him ;  he  caught  the  contagion  of  the  sacred 


DEATH   OF  SAMUEL.  Ill 

ground  he  trespassed  on  ;  and  lay  down  in  a  pro- 
phetic raving  all  day  and  all  night,  "  naked,"  or 
stripped  of  his  royal  robes  ;  so  that  again  the  saying 
went  abroad,  '*  Is  Saul  also  among  the  prophets  ?  " 

When  Samuel  resigned  the  regency  he  had  borne 
so  worthily,  and  saw  the  dominion  intrusted  to  the 
hands  of  Saul,  he  had  made  an  emphatic  appeal  to 
the  people ;  who  with  one  voice  bore  witness  to  his 
integrity  in  office,  and  the  unswerving  fidelity  of  his 
administration.  The  proud  consciousness  of  it  in 
his  own  mind  was  matched  by  the  grateful  sense 
of  it  in  the  popular  veneration.  Through  a  long 
life  he  had  been  true  to  his  single  purpose  of  secur- 
ing the  integrity  of  the  national  institutions,  and  the 
regeneration  of  the  Hebrew  faith.  And  now  that 
the  nation  was  so  violently  distracted  by  the  feud 
between  the  powers  he  was  not  able  to  reconcile, — 
now  that  the  government  and  religion  of  the  people 
were  in  collision,  and  the  man  whom  his  prophetic 
eye  saw  to  be  most  fit  for  the  occasion  was  a  fugitive 
and  outlaw,  and  the  obstinate  enemy  was  taking 
advantage  of  distraction  and  weakness  to  complete 
the  ruin  of  the  state,  —  his  own  work  might  seem 
all  undone,  unless  the  people's  loyalty  to  him  were 
a  pledge  of  some  better  future. 

It  was  at  the  darkest  period  of  this  unhappy 
quarrel,  just  before  the  very  crisis  of  the  desperate 
struggle  for  independence,  that  the  old  man  died,  — 
leaving  Saul,  restless  and  wretched,  to  be  preyed 
on  by  remorse  and  brooding  jealousies ;  leaving  the 
kingdom  distracted  for  the  time  by  civil  feud,  and 
the  transient  outlawry  and  recreancy  of  its  noblest 
son,  the  man  of  genius  and  the  man  of  destiny. 


112  THE    JUDGES. 

Once  more  Samuel  appears  upon  the  stage  ;  —  not 
now  as  the  Prophet,  stern  and  faithful  in  a  degener- 
ate age,  or  as  the  trusted  Counsellor  and  Judge  ;  but 
as  the  avenging  Phantom  that  warns  the  wretched 
king  of  his  impending  defeat  and  death, —  a  fitting 
announcement  of  the  gloomy  close  that  awaited  the 
forfeited  honour  of  the  royal  station.  The  awful 
shade  of  the  Prophet  whose  free  choice  had  made 
him  the  offer  of  the  noblest  destiny,  whose  counsel 
he  had  scorned,  whose  hostility  he  had  defied,  whose 
aid  he  had  foolishly  thought  to  despise  and  reject,  all 
for  pure  incompetency  to  bear  the  great  trust  of  roy- 
alty, appals  him  at  the  eve  of  battle,  and  utters  the 
dreadful  warning,  never  to  be  recalled  :  "  Jehovah 
hath  rent  the  kingdom  out  of  thine  hand  ;  and  to- 
morrow thou  and  thy  sons  shall  be  with  me !  "  It  was 
the  phantom  of  a  despised  and  affronted  Majesty, "  as 
gods  ascending  out  of  the  earth."  "And  Saul  fell 
straightway  on  the  earth,  and  was  sore  afraid  be- 
cause of  the  words  of  Samuel ;  and  there  was  no 
strength  in  him." 

The  next  day  the  battle  was  joined.  And  when 
Israel  was  smitten,  and  fled  before  the  Philistines 
on  Mount  Gilboa,  Saul,  being  "  sore  wounded  of  the 
archers,"  died  there  by  his  own  hand. 


IV.    DAVID. 

AT  the  time  of  the  fatal  battle  on  Mount  Gilboa, 
David  was  thirty  years  old ;  and  for  the  next 
forty  years  the  history  of  the  Hebrew  people  is  the 
history  of  his  reign  and  life.  By  force  of  circum- 
stances and  force  of  character  he  had  already  reached 
a  position  which  made  him  the  inevitable  and  wel- 
come successor  of  the  fallen  king.  His  early  bravery 
and  discretion  had  won  him  the  hearts  of  all  the 
people.  His  youth  was  signalized  by  feats  of  roman- 
tic gallantry,  told  in  popular  song  and  story.  Almost 
from  boyhood  up  he  had  been  the  one  acknowledged 
champion  of  Israel ;  and  on  no  other  could  the  partfes 
of  priest  and  people  unite  so  well. 

Whatever  was  wanting  of  ancient  claim  was  more 
than  made  up  by  recent  services.  For  years  of  a 
marauding  life,  at  the  head  of  a  lawless  and  adven- 
turous troop,  he  had  been  the  guardian  of  the  frontier 
against  the  desert  hordes  from  the  south.  To  his  own 
free  companions  he  had  endeared  himself  by  a  bold, 
frank,  and  generous  demeanour ;  and  their  violent 
and  rude  temper  was  thoroughly  subdued  to  his  na- 
tive superiority  of  mind,  and  his  well-timed  policy. 
Possessing  in  the  highest  degree  the  personal  qualities 
of  a  leader  of  men,  he  never,  from  first  to  last,  lost 


114  DAVID. 

the  warm  and  enthusiastic  regard  of  his  immediate 
followers.  When  Bethlehem,  his  native  town,  was 
once  beleaguered,  and  he  happened  to  express  a 
longing  for  a  draught  of  water  from  the  spring 
he  used  to  drink  of  there,  three  of  his  men  broke 
through  the  enemies'  force,  and  at  the  hazard  of 
their  lives  brought  it  to  him :  but  David  would  not 
drink  "  the  blood  of  the  men  that  went  in  jeopardy 
of  their  lives,"  and  poured  it  out  as  a  libation  to 
Jehovah.  This  is  but  a  single  example  of  the  gen- 
erous rivalry  of  that  camp-life,  and  of  the  devoted 
allegiance  of  his  troop.  The  same  spirit  with  which 
he  had  inspired  them  was  shown,  too,  in  the  entreaty 
made  to  him  once  and  again  in  his  later  life,  to  avoid 
personal  exposure  in  battle  :  he  should  not  "  quench 
the  light  of  Israel ;  "  his  life  was  worth,  his  warriors 
said,  "  ten  thousand  of  such  as  we." 

To  the  captivating  personal  qualities  of  a  military 
chief  he  added  a  sagacious  policy,  which  showed  yet 
more  plainly  his  superiority  to  the  rude  men  about 
him.  He  enforced  on  his  troop  an  equitable  division 
of  the  spoil  taken  from  the  Amalekites  ;  and  estab- 
lished the  rule  that  the  guards  of  the  camp  should 
have  an  equal  share  with  those  who  went  to  the 
battle,  —  instead  of  the  disorderly  scramble,  in  which 
might  is  the  only  right.  His  own  share  he  sent  in 
gifts  to  the  leading  men  of  the  towns  of  Judah,  re- 
minding them  of  his  present  power  and  past  services ; 
and  when  the  news  came  of  Saul's  defeat  and  death, 
he  had  only  to  go  up  to  Hebron,  where  he  was  at 
once  inaugurated  king.  His  policy  towards  the  Phi- 
listines was  of  a  more  questionable  sort,  and  had 


PERSONAL   QUALITIES.  115 

nearly  committed  him  fatally  to  an  act  of  treason. 
From  this,  however,  he  was  saved  by  a  happy  acci- 
dent ;  and  kept  the  strength  of  his  position  as  their 
ally,  without  paying  down  the  ruinous  price  they 
claimed. 

Then  he  was  not  only  a  man  of  action :  he  was  a 
man  of  thought  and  emotion,  —  in  both,  a  type  of 
the  better  tendencies  of  the  Hebrew  mind.  His  early 
culture  had  been  full  as  much  in  the  school  of  arts 
as  in  the  school  of  arms.  He  had  doubtless  shared 
the  religious  training  of  Samuel,  which  included  all 
the  mental  accomplishments  known  to  the  time.  In 
the  first  report  to  Saul  of  "the  son  of  Jesse  the  Beth- 
lehemite,"  he  is  told  of  as  one  "  skilled  in  playing, 
and  a  mighty  valiant  man,  prudent  in  affairs,  and 
of  beautiful  person,  and  Jehovah  is  with  him."  By 
temperament  he  shared  profoundly  in  the  popular 
religious  impressions  and  beliefs.  His  songs  and 
odes,  composed  on  occasions  of  victory  or  defeat,  of 
penitence  or  gratitude,  in  the  fields  where  he  kept 
his  flocks,  or  in  caves  where  he  lay  hid  from  an 
insane  and  violent  king,  or  on  some  high  festival 
of  public  joy,  have  touched  religiously  more  hearts 
than  perhaps  any  other  human  compositions,  and 
are  to  tliis  day  the  model  of  the  devotional  poetry 
of  the  world.  Both  early  culture  and  later  circum- 
stances had  brought  him  into  a  hearty  good  under- 
standing with  the  religious  party  of  the  nation,  or 
the  priesthood.  Saul  had  long  broken  with  them, 
and  had  deeply  exasperated  them.  From  the  time 
of  his  brutal  massacre  of  the  priests  at  Nob,  the  out- 
law David,  to  whom  Abiathar  had  fled,  taking  with 


116  DAVID. 

him  the  high-priest's  prestige  and  the  patrimonial 
right,  had  been  the  recognized  champion  of  that 
party.  He  had  previously  gained  to  his  cause  the 
sanction  of  a  holy  man,  the  prophet  Gad,  —  a  per- 
sonal friend,  perhaps,  —  whose  counsel  carried  with 
it  something  of  a  Divine  sanction  ;  but  with  Abia- 
thar  he  possessed  the  sacred  oracle  of  Urim,  and 
the  avowed  adhesion  of  the  representatives  of  the 
nation's  faith.  Their  opposition  had  been  fatal  to 
the  reign  and  life  of  Saul ;  their  steady  and  unwav- 
ering support  secured  to  David  not  only  his  security 
from  first  to  last,  but  his  almost  unchallenged  place 
in  history. 

Though  long  an  outlaw  and  fugitive,  and  for  near 
a  year  and  a  half  an  exile  in  the  enemies'  service, 
David  was  not  without  his  strong  claims  on  the  na- 
tion's respect  and  gratitude.  In  his  boyhood,  the 
prophetic  eye  of  Samuel  had  selected  him  as  the  one 
fit  to  bear  the  charge  of  the  rule  of  Jehovah's  people. 
His  symbolic  anointing,  if  it  did  not  make  him  openly 
suspected  to  the  king,  must  (if  any  were  privy  to  it) 
have  turned  on  him  the  eyes  of  a  loyal  and  enthusi- 
astic party,  who  deplored  Saul's  widening  defection 
from  the  national  faith  ;  while  at  the  same  time  it' 
must  have  done  much  to  elevate  and  fix  the  temper 
of  his  own  thought,  and  to  give  him  that  secret  re- 
ligious assurance  and  trust  in  the  living  Providence 
which  was  so  strongly  characteristic  of  him.  The 
popular  mind,  too,  dwelt  fondly  on  the  almost  fabu- 
lous exploits  that  had  first  brought  him  into  public 
favour.  While  a  shepherd-boy,  tending  flocks  at  Beth- 
lehem, he  had  killed  a  lion  and  a  bear  that  came 


EARLY  EXPLOITS.  117 

to  take  a  lamb  out  of  the  fold.  When  the  giant 
Goliath  of  Gath,  whose  height  was  six  cubits  and  a 
span,  and  whose  spear  was  like  a  weaver's  beam, 
had  for  forty  days  defied  the  armies  of  Israel,  and 
no  man  was  found  bold  enough  to  meet  him,  David, 
armed  only  with  a  sling  and  five  smooth  stones  from 
the  brook,  smote  him  on  the  forehead  with  a  sudden 
well-aimed  blow  that  brought  him  to  the  ground, 
slew  him  with  his  own  sword,  and  so  put  all  the 
Philistine  host  to  flight.  Jonathan,  Saul's  eldest 
son,  loved  him  "  as  his  own  soul,"  with  all  the 
warmth  of  a  kindred  and  generous  spirit :  each  had 
distinguished  himself  by  romantic  feats  of  valour,  and 
with  equal  frankness  each  recognized  a  brother  and 
true  friend.  Saul,  from  the  first,  with  a  kingly  eye 
as  yet  undarkened  by  jealousy,  saw  his  high  quali- 
ties, and  did  them  honour  :  made  him  first  his  armour- 
bearer  and  captain  of  a  thousand  men ;  then  gave 
him  his  daughter  for  a  bride,  and  the  next  place  in 
station  after  his  own  cousin  Abner,  chief  commander 
of  the  forces.  And  the  people  could  not  but  remem- 
ber the  time  when,  as  each  hostile  inroad  came,  David 
was  the  man  to  meet  it ;  how  he  "  behaved  himself 
wisely  "  in  every  commission  the  king  intrusted  to 
him,  and  "  was  accepted  in  the  sight  of  all  the  peo- 
ple ; "  and  how  when  "  the  women  came  out  of  all 
the  cities  of  Israel,  singing  and  dancing,  to  meet 
King  Saul,  with  tabrets,  with  joy,  and  with  instru- 
ments of  music,  they  answered  one  another  as  they 
played,  and  said  :  — 

"  Saul  hath  slain  his  thousands, 
But  David  his  ten  thousands.** 


118  DAVID. 

Such  was  the  youth  which  had  introduced  this 
new  hero  upon  the  stage,  —  a  youth  soon  imbittered 
by  the  king's  distrust  and  insane  jealousy.  Twice, 
when  "  the  evil  spirit  from  Jehovah  troubled  him,'' 
and  David  played  to  soothe  him,  as  was  his  wont, 
he  had  hurled  his  javelin  at  him  unprovoked  ;  and 
David  knew  that  his  life  was  not  safe  in  the  king's 
hands.  He  had  escaped  one  snare,  by  returning  suc- 
cessful from  the  perilous  exploit  that  was  to  win  his 
bride,  or  more  likely  forfeit  his  life  ;  and  when  Mi- 
chal  loved  him,  and  all  the  people  loved  him,  Saul 
"  was  yet  the  more  afraid  of  him,  and  became  his 
enemy  continually."  Jonathan's  generous  interces- 
sion reconciled  his  father  to  him  for  a  time  ;  then 
only  a  hasty  flight  by  night,  and  Michal's  stratagem 
(who  feigned  that  he  was  sick,  and  deceived  the  mes- 
sengers by  showing  a  wooden  image  in  his  bed),  saved 
him  from  seizure  and  death.  Again  Jonathan  en- 
deavoured to  bring  about  a  reconciliation,  which  his 
father's  sudden  rage  convinced  him  was  impossible  ; 
and  he  met  him  by  appointment  in  a  harvest-field, 
to  take  farewell,  and  bid  him  fly  for  his  life.  He  saw 
his  friend's  noble  qualities,  and  the  doom  that  must 
inevitably  come  upon  his  father's  house  ;  and,  in  the 
tenderest  appeal  to  his  gratitude  and  honour,  urged 
him  to  remember  their  friendship,  and  deal  kindly 
by  his  own  family  who  would  come  hereafter  into  his 
charge.  So  they  took  a  sacred  oath  of  mutual  fidel- 
ity, "  and  kissed  one  another,  and  wept  one  with 
another,"  till  Jonathan,  who  saw  that  time  must  not 
be  lost,  bade  him  go  in  peace,  and  he  arose  and 
departed.     They  saw  each  other  only  once  again, 


ADULLAM.  119 

when  Jonathan  came  out  into  the  wilderness  to  warn 
him  of  new  designs  against  his  Hfe.  Then,  parting 
forever,  they  once  more  solemnly  renewed  their 
pledge,  —  a  pledge  but  coldly  fulfilled  in  David's 
tardy  and  suspicious  hospitalities  towards  Mephibo- 
sheth,  Jonathan's  lame  son. 

The  period  which  followed  was  a  critical  and  event- 
ful one  for  David's  fortunes.  Amidst  the  dangers 
and  privations  he  was  exposed  to,  his  force  of  mind 
became  developed,  and  his  true  destiny  was  found, 
along  with  the  self-reliance  he  now  learned  to  prac- 
tise. A  dark  and  fatal  deed,  of  which  he  was  the 
unwilling  cause,  touched  him  keenly  with  remorse. 
When  in  his  loneliness  he  had  applied  for  counsel 
and  supplies  to  the  priest  Abimelech,  who  fed  his 
fainting  troop  with  "  shew-bread "  from  the  sacred 
table,  he  had  feigned  the  king's  commission  ;  and  the 
old  man  was  thus  deceived  into  an  act  of  hospitality 
which  provoked  the  jealous  king  to  the  massacre  of 
himself,  and  his  whole  company.  Thus  driven  from 
the  realm  by  the  calamity  his  presence  seemed  to 
carry  with  it,  David  thought  to  take  refuge  with  the 
Philistine  king.  Insecure  here  as  elsewhere,  he  re- 
tiu-ned  to  Judah,  and  roughly  fortified  himself  in 
the  cave  of  Adullam.  Here  "  every  one  that  was  in 
distress,  and  every  one  that  was  in  debt,  and  every 
one  that  was  discontented,  gathered  themselves  to 
him ;  and  he  became  captain  over  them ;  and  there 
were  with  him  about  four  hundred  men," — a  number 
that  shortly  grew  to  six  hundred. 

With  this  outlaw  troop,  devoted  to  his  service,  he 
did  not  revolt  against  Saul,  or  do  mischief  to   the 


120  DAVID. 

country.  A  deeper  or  else  a  more  generous  policy 
dictated  another  course.  He  assumed  the  position 
of  defender  of  the  region  against  hostile  inroads,  and 
became  a  self-appointed  guard  of  the  frontier.  For- 
midable as  of  old  was  his  name  as  foe  of  the  Philis- 
tines, while  he  relieved  a  beleaguered  town  or  dis- 
persed their  forces  in  the  field.  The  supplies  he 
needed  would  be  freely  rendered  by  the  people,  who 
found  his  protection  so  much  more  effective  than 
that  of  the  crippled  monarchy;  and,  from  one  in- 
stance,—  that  of  Nabal,  whose  wife  he  afterwards 
married,  —  we  know  that  if  these  had  been  refused, 
neither  he  nor  his  freebooters  would  have  scrupled 
to  take  them  with  a  strong  hand,  and  pay  for  them 
in  blood.  Towards  Saul  he  cherished,  according  to 
the  narrative,  even  a  romantic  loyalty.  While  in 
imminent  hazard  of  his  life,  betrayed  by  the  people 
of  the  city  he  had  rescued,  or  the  district  in  which 
he  lodged ;  once  saved  only  by  the  sudden  tidings  of 
a  Philistine  invasion  to  the  north,  and  finally  fleeing 
in  utter  desperation  to  the  enemy,  —  an  account  twice 
told,  with  different  incidents,  relates  how  he  spared 
the  king's  life  when  completely  in  his  power,  and  so 
worked  on  his  better  feeling  as  to  make  him  desist 
from  his  persecution,  and  swear  again  the  faith  he 
had  treacherously  broken. 

Very  abruptly,  upon  this  last  reconciliation,  we 
find  him  despairing  of  his  life,  and  taking  refuge 
with  Achish,  king  of  Gath.  As  the  captain  of  a 
large  company  of  bold  and  well-trained  men,  and 
as  the  object  of  Saul's  unappeasable  resentment,  he 
presented  claims  quite  different  from  those  of  the 


AMONG   THE  PHILISTINES.  121 

solitary  exile  who  had  fled  from  their  hospitality- 
years  before.  Their  Philistine  policy  was  to  disable 
the  Hebrew  power  by  dividing  and  distracting  it. 
As  head  of  a  formidable  party  at  home,  he  might  be 
turned  to  great  account  in  their  scheme  of  conquest. 
Accordingly,  he  made  his  terms  as  something  of  an 
independent  power.  The  border  town  or  stronghold 
of  Ziklag  was  put  into  his  hands,  —  a  petty  princi- 
pality of  his  own,  from  which  he  afterwards  treated 
so  independently  about  the  kingdom  of  Judah.  He 
would  not  fight  his  countrymen  directly  in  his  border 
skirmishes,  and  spared  them  carefully  in  all  his  ex- 
peditions, —  hoodwinking  by  his  adroitness  (says 
our  narrative)  the  king's  credulous  confidence.  But 
such  good  service  he  rendered  to  his  new  allies,  by 
beating  back  the  marauders  of  the  wilderness,  that 
he  came  at  length  to  be  regarded  with  a  trust  almost 
unlimited. 

The  approaching  decisive  battle  of  Gilboa,  in 
which  Saul  and  his  sons  were  slain,  must  have  put 
David  to  the  most  terrible  alternative.  Evasion 
and  ambiguity  would  no  longer  serve  his  turn. 
Hitherto  he  was  scrupulously  neutral,  and  might 
be  reckoned  the  friend  of  either  party.  Now  he 
must  make  up  his  mind  whether  to  meet  his  sov- 
ereign and  friend  and  countrymen  in  open  fight, 
and  so  forfeit  every  higher  aim  and  better  hope  he 
might  have  cherished,  or  else  betray  the  confidence 
placed  in  him  by  his  new  allies,  who  would  certainly 
show  no  mercy  to  a  deserter  on  the  eve  of  battle. 
Either  case  would  have  rendered  his  name  justly 
infamous,  and  his  further  ambition   hopeless.     For- 


122  DAVID. 

tuiiately  for  him,  he  was  spared  the  decision.  The 
jealousy  of  the  Philistine  chiefs  was  roused.  Tliey 
suspected  his  good  faith.  "  How  should  he  reconcile 
himself  to  his  master  ?  "  said  they ;  "  should  it  not 
be  with  the  blood  of  these  men  ? "  So  they  com- 
pelled him  to  withdraw,  though  against  his  plausible 
and  skilful  protest,  and  with  the  amplest  assurance 
of  the  king's  entire  confidence.  The  battle  was 
fought.  The  forces  of  Israel  were  dispersed  and 
overthrown.  The  Philistines  held  undisputed  mas- 
tery of  the  middle  country.  And  David,  who  had 
returned  just  in  time  to  recapture  liis  men's  families 
and  treasures  from  an  Amalekite  horde,  was  peaceably 
established  as  king  of  the  south  country,  at  Hebron. 

For,  in  the  mean  time,  his  force  was  continually 
increased  by  men  who  thronged  to  him  from  every 
quarter  of  the  land,  "  until  it  was  a  great  host  like 
the  host  of  God."  They  were  men  formidable  for 
strength  and  daring,  and  armed  to  the  teeth ;  as  the 
later  chronicler  describes  them,  "  men  of  might  and 
men  of  war,  fit  for  the  battle,  that  could  handle 
shield  and  buckler,  whose  faces  were  like  the  faces 
of  lions,  and  swift  as  roes  upon  the  mountains,  — 
one  of  the  least  of  them  a  match  for  a  hundred,  and 
one  of  the  greatest  for  a  thousand."  *  A  gathering 
host  of  such  a  stamp  left  no  doubt  in  what  direction 
lay  the  destiny  of  Israel. 

As  king,  the  military  force  of  David  had  still  for  its 
base  and  nucleus  the  same  regiment  of  six  hundred 
"  mighty  men  "  that  had  gathered  about  him  in  the 
wilderness.     From  first  to  last,  they  were  the  strong- 

*  1  Chronicles  xii.  8. 


THE  MIGHTY  MEN.  123 

hold  of  his  power,  and  the  soul  of  every  great 
achievement  of  his  reign.  Their  leaders  were  men 
distinguished  each  by  some  marvellous  feat  of  per- 
sonal prowess,  such  as  making  stand  against  whole 
armies,  slaying  entire  battalions,  or  coping  unarmed 
with  a  giant  in  panoply,  or  a  lion  in  a  pit.  By  a 
strict  gradation  of  rank,  they  were  marshalled  under 
thirty  officers,  above  whom  were  two  ranks  of  three 
each,  —  "mighty  men  of  valour."  Joab,  son  of  Da- 
vid's sister,  held  the  almost  undisputed  station  of 
"  leader  of  the  host,"  —  a  wily,  fierce,  unscrupulous, 
and  relentless  man,  dangerous  to  keep  in  power,  yet 
more  dangerous  to  deprive  of  it.  Twice,  by  a  base 
and  treacherous  assassination,  he  rid  himself  of  a 
troublesome  rival,  —  killing  Abner  in  revenge  for 
his  brother  Asahel,  and  Amasa  out  of  pure  jealousy. 
Brutal  and  remorseless  as  he  was,  however,  he  was 
a  man  whom  David  could  not  spare  ;  and  after  three 
several  attempts  to  supersede  him,  he  kept  his  po- 
sition until  Solomon's  guardsmen  slew  him  at  the 
very  altar.  He  was  one  of  the  first  and  boldest 
of  those  who  had  joined  David  in  his  flight ;  and 
was  indisputable  chief  of  that  formidable  body 
which  secured  him  the  throne,  and  made  his  armies 
practically  invincible.  The  Cherethites  and  Peleth- 
ites  were  an  alien  corps,  —  both  body-guard  and  ex- 
ecutioners, like  the  Roman  lictors  ;  the  last  resource 
of  royal  power  and  the  first  instrument  of  despotism. 
For  the  present,  the  great  interest  of  David  was 
peace.  He  must  gain  time  for  his  power  to  become 
firmly  knit  and  independently  strong.  At  Hebron, 
accordingly,  he  remained  something  more  than  seven 


124  DAVID. 

years.  His  six  hundred  men  with  their  families  he 
quartered  upon  the  towns  of  Judah,  and  probably 
paid  tribute  to  the  Philistines,  who  were  not  sorry 
to  see  Judah  thus  made  a  separate  dependent  prov- 
ince. He  interfered  neither  with  the  pretensions  of 
Saul's  family  —  represented  now  by  the  weak  boy 
Ishbosheth  —  nor  with  the  slow  expulsion  of  the 
Philistines  from  their  late  conquest,  which  was  ef- 
fected probably  in  the  course  of  the  ensuing  five 
years  by  the  able  generalship  of  Abner. 

One  fiercely  contested  battle,  preceded  by  a  sin- 
gular combat  of  twelve  champions  on  each  side,  of 
whom  all  were  slain,  measured  the  strength  of  the 
two  parties  now  in  possession  of  the  Hebrew  realm ; 
and  for  two  years  more,  "  David  waxed  stronger  and 
stronger,  and  the  house  of  Saul  waxed  weaker  and 
weaker,"  till  Abner  began  to  feel  that  David's  hand 
alone  was  equal  to  the  rule  of  the  disorganized  state. 
Ishbosheth  suspected  his  coolness,  and  charged  him 
with  seeking  the  power  for  himself,  —  implied  in  his 
marrying  Saul's  concubine,  Rizpah.  Upon  this  Ab- 
ner, the  only  able  man  on  that  side,  promptly  made 
terms  with  David,  and  pledged  himself  to  bring  him 
the  allegiance  of  all  Israel :  and  this  he  would  have 
done,  reserving  honourable  terms,  doubtless,  for  the 
son  of  Saul,  but  Joab  called  him  back  on  his  way, 
and  stabbed  him  with  his  own  hand,  —  an  act  of 
revenge  for  the  death  of  Asahel,  whom  Abner  had 
slain  by  a  sudden  back-thrust  of  his  spear,  when 
close  pressed  in  flight.  Ishbosheth  was  presently 
after  murdered  in  his  bed  ;  and,  nothing  standing  in 
David's  way,  he  was  at  once  received  unchallenged, 
as  the  sovereign  of  all  Israel. 


JERUSALEM.  125 

The  first  acts  of  David's  reign  were  parts  of  a  con- 
sistent and  determined  policy,  to  fortify  and  extend 
his  independent  power.  This  must  be  done  by  con- 
quest first,  at  home,  of  the  remnants  of  old  tribes  that 
still  held  out  against  the  Hebrews ;  and  next  abroad, 
by  absorbing  or  suppressing,  at  any  hazard,  the  out- 
lying races  that  might  menace  the  frontier.  This 
policy  was  to  prepare  the  way  for  converting  the 
Hebrew  realm  itself  into  a  strong,  compact,  and  well- 
ordered  state,  on  the  familiar  model  of  an  Oriental 
autocracy.  The  germs  of  it  were  fully  developed 
under  the  long  reign  of  Solomon  ;  it  was  checked 
only  by  the  revolt  of  the  ten  tribes,  and  the  final 
division  of  the  kingdom. 

The  Jebusite  settlement,  or  encampment,  about 
Mount  Moriah  had  maintained  till  now  a  scanty 
fragment  of  the  old  Canaanitish  power.  The  place 
was  so  strong  by  nature  that  its  defenders  told 
David,  in  defiance,  that  their  lame  and  blind  could 
hold  it  out  against  him.  But  Joab,  dauntless  as 
unscrupulous,  seized  their  stronghold  on  the  neigh- 
bouring hill  of  Zion,  and  the  garrison  was  speedily 
reduced.  This  cluster  of  hills  David  chose  for  his 
capital,  naming  it  Jerusalem,  the  "  heritage  of 
Peace."  It  was  on  the  border  of  his  own  tribe, 
Judah,  belonging  almost  equally  to  the  territory 
of  Benjamin,  —  as  nearly  central,  therefore,  as  any 
place  not  too  far  from  the  actual  seat  of  his  power. 
The  high  and  rocky  hill  of  Zion,  well  watered  by 
springs  from  surrounding  heights,  lies  toward  the 
southwest,  flanked  by  the  rugged  vales  of  Hinnom 
and  Jehoshaphat,  and  separated  by  a  deep  ravine 


126  DAVID. 

from  Moriali  on  the  east  and  the  gentler  slopes  of 
Millo  at  the  north.  The  whole  site  covers  no  more 
tlian  a  square  mile.  The  portion  known  as  the 
"city  of  David,"  the  original  stronghold  of  Zion, 
was  strongly  entrenched  as  the  citadel  of  the  realm. 
The  smooth  slopes  of  Millo  became  the  populous 
quarter,  while  the  broad  summit  of  Moriah  lay  open 
till  the  next  reign. 

That  nothing  might  be  wanting  to  the  honours  of 
the  new  capital,  it  was  made  the  head-quarters  of  the 
national  religion.  Tlie  ark  had  remained  at  Kirjath- 
jearim  ever  since  its  recovery  from  the  Philistines  in 
Samuel's  time  ;  and  one  of  the  first  of  David's  public 
acts,  delayed  three  months  by  the  evil  omen  of  Uz- 
zah's  death,  was  now  to  bring  it,  with  songs  and  a 
great  procession,  in  triumph  to  the  capital ;  himself, 
in  a  Levite's  garb,  leaping  and  dancing  at  the  head. 
It  was  placed  in  a  new  tabernacle  on  Mount  Zion, 
until  there  should  be  means  and  time  to  build  a 
temple  corresponding  in  magnificence  with  the  new 
position  the  nation  had  now  assumed.  The  order  of 
Levites  was  now  for  the  first  time  established,  or  else 
reinstated  with  far  more  splendour  than  ever  before. 
The  religious  orders  were  allied  or  incorporated  with 
the  monarchy,  which  thus  secured  the  support  of  the 
religious  feeling  of  the  people ;  while  the  two  high- 
priests  required  by  this  policy  (one  belonging  to  the 
old  rural  sanctuary)  would  not  easily  combine  to 
form  a  power  dangerous  to  the  king's  supremacy. 

These  were  the  earlier  steps  of  that  vigorous  cen- 
tralizing policy  characteristic  of  the  reign  of  David 
and  his  successor.     Very  naturally,  they  roused  the 


CONQUESTS.  127 

jealousy  of  neighbouring  powers.  The  Philistines 
were  alarmed  for  their  security,  and  at  once  com- 
menced a  new  invasion.  David  first  beat  them  thor- 
oughly in  the  vale  of  Rephaim,  the  Giants'  Valley, 
near  Jerusalem  ;  then,  by  counsel  of  an  oracle,  stole 
a  march  upon  them  when  the  rising  night-wind 
stirred  "  the  tops  of  the  mulberry-trees,"  and  drove 
them  back  within  their  ancient  boundaries  ;  then,  on 
a  third  attack,  he  "  smote  them,  and  subdued  them, 
and  took  from  them  the  Bridle-Arm,"  *  —  that  is, 
hampered  them  by  seizing  the  strong  posts  which 
curbed  the  frontier,  —  so  that  they  troubled  him  no 
more  till  close  on  the  termination  of  his  reign.  The 
most  formidable  peril  to  the  nation's  independence 
was  thus  timely  overcome. 

The  three  wars  which  followed  —  with  Moab,  Am- 
mon,  and  Edom  —  were  further  steps  of  the  same 
steady  and  perhaps  necessary  policy.  Each  was  a 
painful  illustration  of  the  ferocious  temper  in  which 
these  border  feuds  were  waged. 

The  case  of  Moab  seems  especially- cruel  and  wan- 
tonly vindictive.  It  was  the  home  of  David's  an- 
cestry, the  native  land  of  Ruth,  his  father's  grand- 
mother ;  and  at  the  darkest  hour  of  his  peril  from 
the  animosity  of  Saul,  he  had  placed  the  family  of 
Jesse  there  for  security.  What  the  pretext  or  provo- 
cation was  we  do  not  know.  The  story  of  the  war  is 
told  in  a  single  sentence.  "  He  smote  Moab,  and 
measured  them  with  a  line,  casting  them  down  to 
the  ground  (as  helpless  prisoners  of  war)  ;  with  two 
lines  he  measured  to  put  to  death,  and  with  one  full 

*  Metheg  Ammah. 


128  DAVID. 

line  to  keep  alive."  The  sole  object  of  this  sav- 
age massacre  was  apparently  to  destroy  the  nation's 
force  so  thoroughly  that  he  might  find  no  resistance 
in  that  quarter  to  any  future  scheme  of  conquest  or 
defence.  Effectually  as  this  policy  was  carried  out, 
there  is  no  room  to  doubt  that  it  was  wholly  success- 
ful so  far  as  his  own  reign  only  was  concerned  ;  but 
we  learn  from  the  prophets  how  dearly  the  debt  of 
blood  was  paid  in  the  border  hostilities  that  harassed 
tlie  later  monarchy. 

The  turn  of  Edom  came  next,  —  Edom,  that  dwelt 
in  the  rocky  and  almost  inaccessible  ravines  skirting 
the  Arabian  desert.  The  Edomites,  perhaps  in  re- 
taliation for  Saul's  invasion  of  them,  had  joined  in  a 
concerted  attack,  by  which  the  outlying  tribes  of  the 
east  and  south  hoped  to  crush  the  rising  supremacy 
of  Israel.  They  were  beaten  in  a  sanguinary  battle 
in  the  Salt  Yalley,  south  of  the  Dead  Sea,  El  Ara- 
bah ;  and  Joab,  following-  them  up  to  their  rocky 
fastnesses,  quartered  himself  there  for  six  months,  ex- 
terminating every  male  creature  he  could  find.  They 
were  driven  from  their  old  capital,  Selah,  or  Petra, 
farther  back  into  the  wilderness,  utterly  broken  and 
disabled,  so  that  for  fifty  years  they  could  gather  no 
effective  force  ;  but  they  bloodily  avenged  themselves 
long  after,  and  maintained  a  feud  with  Israel  that 
lasted  for  several  centuries.* 

But  the  great  and  eventful  conflict  of  David's  reign 
was  with  the  allied  forces  of  the  east  and  north.    The 

♦  Psalm  xviii.  is  thought  to  be  the  song  of  triumph  at  the  meeting 
of  David,  victorious  in  the  east,  with  Joab,  returning  from  this  expe- 
dition in  the  south. 


WAR   WITH  AMMON.  129 

Ammonites  were  already  jealous  and  alarmed  ;  the 
fate  of  Moab  hurried  them  into  a  rash  defiance  of 
the  conqueror.  David  had  sent  courteous  messages 
to  the  young  chief,  Hanun,  whose  father  was  just 
dead.  But  Hanun  suspected  treachery  in  his  bold 
and  wily  neighbour.  The  envoys  he  treated  as  spies. 
By  way  .of  aggravated  insult,  he  "  shaved  off  one 
half  of  their  beards,  and  cut  off  their  garments  in 
the  middle,  and  sent  them  away ;  "  then  mustered 
the  forces  of  his  Syrian  alliance,  and  made  war  at 
once.  David,  bidding  the  degraded  messengers 
"  tarry  at  Jericho  till  their  beards  were  grown," 
was  not  slow  to  avenge  the  affront,  —  to  Eastern 
notions  the  most  unpardonable  that  could  be  offered. 
The  war  lasted  three  years.  The  numerous  cavalry 
from  the  great  plains  of  Syria  was  broken  and  foiled 
in  the  rough  region  beyond  Jordan.  The  obstinate 
courage  and  thorough  training  of  David's  men  made 
good  any  lack  of  numbers.  As  the  result  of  the 
struggle,  both  Damascus  and  the  whole  country  as 
far  as  the  Euphrates  became  tributary  to  Israel. 
Tlie  Ammonites,  deprived  of  their  allies,  had  no 
hope  but  in  holding  out  to  the  utmost  in  the  strongly 
built  town  of  Rammah.  Here  Joab  besieged  them ; 
and  here  Uriah  the  Hittite  perished  by  the  base 
treachery  of  David,  who  had  ordered  that  brave  and 
loyal  officer  to  be  deserted  in  the  front  post  of  dan- 
ger. In  a  year  or  more  the  town  was  effectually 
reduced  ;  and  the  politic  Joab  sent  to  David  to  come 
and  claim  for  himself  the  honours  of  its  capture.  So 
David,  his  hands  stained  with  his  still  fresh  guilt  in 
the  affair  of  Uriah,  came  and  took  the  place,  and 

6*  I 


130  DAVID. 

inflicted  a  far  more  cruel  vengeance  than  even  the 
massacres  of  Moab  and  Edom.  He  "  brought  forth 
the  people  that  were  therein,  and  put  them  under 
saws  and  harrows  of  iron,"  —  that  is,  tortured  them 
in  various  ways,  —  and  some  he  smothered  in  heated 
ovens  ("  brick-kilns  ")  ;  "  and  thus  did  he  to  all  the 
cities  of  the  children  of  Ammon."  * 

David  was  now  near  the  middle  of  his  reign,  and 
at  the  summit  of  his  power.  Under  the  influence  of 
imbridled  passion,  and  gratified  ambition,  and  pam- 
pered lust  of  sway,  had  ripened  the  seeds  of  all  that 
was  base  and  cruel  in  his  nature.  How  he  backed 
the  passions  of  the  blood  by  infamous  treachery  to- 
wards a  loyal  and  unsuspecting  companion-in-arms 
had  been  shown  in  that  most  guilty  act  of  his  life, 
the  affair  of  Bathsheba  and  Uriah.  The  same  capri- 
cious and  despotic  indulgence  led  to  the  other  fast- 
coming  calamities  of  his  life.  Departing  from  the 
simpler  example  Saul  had  set,  he  had  followed  from 
the  first  one  of  the  worst  practices  of  Eastern  despot- 
ism,—  a  multiplicity  of  wives.  Polygamy  was  a  cus- 
tom which  the  Hebrew  institutions  did  not  approve, 
and  which  the  patriarchal  history  warned  against,  — 
the  more  mischievous,  perhaps,  because  tolerated 
against  the  protest  of  the  general  sense.  Saul's 
daughter  Michal  had  been  given  to  another  man ; 
but  David  had  reclaimed  her  at  once  on  coming  to 
the  throne,  so  as  to  unite  the  claims  of  both  royal 

♦  The  Assyrian  monuments  leave  no  doubt  as  to  what  was  the  ordi- 
nary treatment  of  a  captured  town  in  this  early  age.  Compare  Judges 
viii.  16  ;  Proverbs  xx.  26;  Amos  i.  3.  Psalm  xxi.  is  held  to  be  the 
ode  written  to  commemorate  this  frightful  act  of  vengeance. 


HIS  HOUSEHOLD.  131 

houses,  —  taking  her  forcibly  from  a  husband  who 
loved  her  and  long  followed  her  weeping  when  she 
was  torn  from  him  ;  then  letting  her  live  in  solitude 
and  neglect.  At  Hebron  there  were  already  six 
wives  in  his  seraglio,  and  at  Jerusalem  at  least  ten, 
—  each  with  her  wasteful  separate  household,  liable 
to  shameful  exhibitions  of  jealousy  and  strife,  and 
stimulating  still  more  highly  the  despotic  appetite 
for  change.  It  was  this  that  brought  on  him  the 
fatal  act  of  the  abduction  of  Bathsheba,  with  its  train 
of  evil  consequences,  and  its  maiming  of  his  moral 
strength.  Remorse  as  deep  and  penitence  as  sincere 
as  that  he  unquestionably  felt  might  restore  in  part 
the  inward  harmony  and  the  spiritual  force  he  had 
lost ;  but  it  could  not  restore  the  dignity  of  his  posi- 
tion, or  the  confidence  he  had  forfeited,  or  the  domes- 
tic peace  he  had  invaded.  The  coarse  and  unscrupu- 
lous Joab,  whom  he  had  made  partner  and  confidant 
of  his  guilt,  would  be  never  backward  in  using  the 
advantage  it  gave  him  over  a  master  who  could  not 
shake  him  off,  —  a  bitter  cross  to  the  nobler  nature 
of  the  king.*  Still  more,  while  the  vicious  custom 
was  retained,  the  same  root  of  bitterness  would  put 
forth  similar  shoots. 

In  such  a  state  of  things  as  now  existed  in  his  es- 
tablishment, violent  jealousies  break  out,  and  hatred, 
among  the  children  of  different  mothers.  By  Oriental 
custom,  the  brother,  even  more  than  the  father,  is 
the  defender  of  his  sister's  honour.  Among  the 
twenty  or  more  children  of  David's  household  it  is 

*  How  deeply  David  must  have  felt  this  thraldom  is  apparent  from 
the  language  of  Psalm  ci. 


132  DAVID. 

not  surprising  that  we  find  instances  of  fraternal 
feud  ending  in  blood.  Absalom  avenged  his  sister 
Tamar  by  the  murder  of  his  half-brother  Amnon ; 
then  fled  to  his  mother's  country  towards  Assyria, 
where  he  remained  three  years.  By  Joab's  crafty 
intercession  he  was  at  length  recalled ;  but,  though 
David's  private  indignation  was  appeased,  some  pen- 
alty must  be  suffered  for  public  justice'  sake,  and 
for  two  years  longer  Absalom  was  not  permitted  to 
see  the  king's  face.  When  at  length  he  was  restored 
to  his  former  place,  and  became  the  acknowledged 
heir  of  the  crown,  he  had  brooded  so  long  over  his 
disgrace,  that  his  one  settled  purpose  was  revenge, 
and  he  used  his  new  advantage  to  stir  up  a  desperate 
conspiracy. 

In  the  simple  fashion  of  Oriental  monarchy,  then 
as  now,  the  sovereign  must  listen  to  many  complaints, 
and,  in  a  multitude  of  cases,  render  justice  in  his  own 
person.  This  exposes  him  to  all  the  rancour  of  pri- 
vate disappointment,  and  complaints  of  favouritism. 
In  David's  case,  it  laid  him  open  to  the  further  jeal- 
ousy always  ready  to  break  out  against  his  own  tribe 
of  Judah.  Absalom  took  advantage  of  the  disaffec- 
tion he  saw  gathering  from  this  source.  When  any 
came  for  justice,  he  would  not  so  much  as  receive  the 
ordinary  respect  paid  to  a  king's  son ;  but  gave  an 
equal  greeting,  regretted  the  king's  inefficiency  and 
the  law's  delay,  and  said*,  "  0  that  I  were  made  judge, 
that  any  man  which  hath  any  suit  or  cause  might 
come  to  me,  and  I  would  do  him  justice."  And 
"  when  any  man  came  to  do  him  obeisance,  he  put 
fortli  his  liand  and  took  him  and  kissed  him.     So 


ABSALOM.  133 

Absalom  stole  the  hearts  of  the  men  of  Israel."  A 
natural  indulgence  towards  the  proud  beauty  and 
hasty  passions  of  his  youth  grew  easily  into  an  impa- 
tient wish  to  see  him  in  his  father's  seat.  David, 
partially  fond  and  weakly  indulgent  towards  Absa- 
lom, —  now  his  eldest  son,  and  of  royal  blood  too  on 
his  mother's  side,  —  suspected  nothing.  When  Absa- 
lom on  a  feast-day*  gave  the  signal  for  revolt  in 
Hebron,  things  took  so  sudden  a  turn,  that  by  noon 
lie  was  master  of  Jerusalem  ;  and  in  the  same  even- 
ing, his  father,  a  sorrowful  exile,  with  a  few  trusty 
friends  and  the  right  arm  of  his  power,  his  guard  of 
mighty  men,  took  such  hasty  flight,  that  "by  the 
morning  light  there  lacked  not  one  of  them  that  was 
not  gone  over  Jordan."  Absalom's  purpose  was  now 
to  follow  him  up,  and  crush  him  before  his  force  could 
rally.  This  w^as  the  "  wise  counsel  "  of  Ahithophel. 
It  was  foiled  by  Hushai,  a  confidential  adviser  of 
the  king's,  who  took  the  discreet  step  of  volunteering 
his  service,  and  humoured  Absalom's  idle  temper  by 
framing  plausible  reasons  of  delay. 

For  some  three  months  the  young  prince  now 
wantoned  in  the  exercise  of  his  ill-got  power.  But, 
thanks  to  Hushai,  David  had  gained  all  he  required, 
—  time.  His  name  and  cause  were  daily  gathering 
strength.  The  priestly  party  in  Jerusalem  acted  as 
his  spies,  and  extemporized  a  hazardous  but  very 
effective  way  of  communication.  Supplies  came  in 
from  the  loyal  east-country,  which  he  had  delivered 
from  the  border  feuds  with  Ammon,  and  where  he 

*  After  a  delay  of  "forty  years,"  says  the  narrative,  returning 
quaintly  upon  the  old  style  of  chronology. 


134  DAVID. 

now  staked  his  fortunes.  Wlien  the  army  of  the  con- 
spiracy invested  his  stronghold  at  Mahanaim,  it  was 
already  too  late.  A  bloody  battle  was  fought  in  the 
"  woods  of  Ephraim."  Twenty  thousand  of  the  Is- 
raelites are  said  to  have  been  slain,  and  many  more 
perished  miserably  in  forest  and  fen.  Absalom  him- 
self, caught  from  his  mule  by  his  luxuriant  hair,  and 
swinging  helpless  from  the  branches  of  an  oak  tree, 
was  thrust  through  the  heart  by  Joab's  own  hand. 
Anything  less  prompt  and  summary  than  this,  he 
argued,  would  have  been  ineffectual  to  stay  the  guilt 
of  a  son's  rebellion,  or  make  the  future  safe.  But  it 
was  against  David's  express  command  ;  and  all  the 
sovereign's  sternness  was  lost  in  the  father's  tender- 
ness, as  he  broke  into  the  passionate  lamentation,  "  0 
my  son  Absalom !  my  son,  my  son  Absalom !  Would 
God  I  had  died  for  thee,  0  Absalom,  my  son,  my 


son  1 


!  " 


Like  a  beaten  army  the  force  slunk  back  into  the 
city,  and  the  king's  grief  was  fast  becoming  their 
discontent ;  when  Joab  roughly  chided  him,  and 
brought  him  to  himself,  threatening  a  worse  rebellion 
before  night  than  that  just  crushed.  How  divided 
and  sensitive  the  popular  temper  was,  was  shown  just 
after,  when  the  old  jealousy  against  Judah  broke  out 
afresh  in  the  north,  and  again  the  rough  promptness 
of  Joab  was  needful  to  check  the  new  conspiracy  in 
the  bud. 

Hitherto  the  nation  had  felt  the  advantage,  rather 
than  any  heavy  pressure,  of  the  strong  consolidated 
force  of  monarchy.  It  was  free  from  fear  of  enemies 
abroad,  and  delivered  from  the  violence  of  feuds  at 


POLICY   OF  PEACE.  135 

home.  The  eventful  and  decisive  wars  into  which 
the  commencement  of  David's  reign  was  plunged, 
give  the  impression  that  it  was  a  period  of  military 
action  chiefly,  and  perhaps  of  military  despotism. 
But,  on  the  contrary,  as  compared  with  previous  times, 
and  even  with  whole  centuries  of  modern  history,  it 
was  rather  a  period  of  peace.  Of  the  thirty-three 
years  of  his  sovereignty,  not  more  than  ten  were 
probably  taken  up  in  warfare  ;  at  least  twenty  were 
years  of  greater  security  and  quiet  than  had  ever 
been  known  in  Israel.  The  arts  of  peace  throve  even 
more  than  the  fame  of  war.  Conquest-  for  its  own 
sake  David  did  not  attempt :  it  was  against  the  genius 
of  the  Hebrew  people,  and  against  their  standing  jeal- 
ousy of  a  military  despotism,  or  indeed  of  any  form 
of  centralization.  Tyre  and  Sidon,  which  lay  on  his 
northern  seaboard,  the  conqueror  of  Syria  spared ;  nor 
was  there  any  interruption  of  the  friendly  relation  in 
which  they  stood  towards  the  Hebrew  state.  Perhaps 
the  absorption  of  the  Canaanite  populations  had  been 
brought  about  by  a  compromise  which  respected  their 
old  title  to  such  domains  as  they  still  possessed ;  and 
this  may  account  for  the  Jebusite  garrison  at  Jerusa- 
lem, and  the  enrolling  of  Hittites,  Cherethites,  and 
Pelethites  in  David's  force,  as  well  as  for  the  politic 
sparing  of  Phoenicia:  or,  again,  the  public  interest 
was  better  served  by  trade  than  conquest,  and  Tyre 
was  too  good  a  market  to  lose.  At  any  rate,  com- 
merce, and  a  large  increase  of  wealth  and  gain  in  the 
arts  of  peace,  especially  in  agriculture,  were  quite  as 
important  features  of  this  reign  as  either  services  of 
religion  or  feats  of  arms,  —  features  of  which  the  con- 


136  DAVID. 

sequence  was  seen  more  fully  in  the  time  of  Solomon. 
Immense  access  of  riches  and  population,  the  natural 
growth  of  untaxed  peace,  had  given  quite  a  new  ma- 
terial basis  to  the  Hebrew  empire. 

For  the  sake  of  knowing  his  own  strength  more 
accurately,  or  with  some  design  of  further  conquests, 
or  (still  more  likely)  with  a  view  to  greater  consoli- 
dation, and  an  organized  despotism  similar  to  that  of 
Egypt,  David  now  sent  Joab  to  take  a  census  of  the 
tribes.  Whatever  his  design,  it  was  broken  short  in 
the  beginning.  The  popular  instinct,  even  under  the 
freest  form  of  government,  is  restive  and  suspicious 
when  private  affairs  are  made  matter  of  close  inspec- 
tion to  public  agents,  —  a  feeling  curiously  reflected 
in  the  Mosaic  law,*  that  a  piece  of  silver  should  be 
paid,  on  such  an  occasion,  as  the  ransom  of  each 
man's  life,  to  propitiate,  apparently,  the  dread  of  an 
ignorant  superstition.  In  David's  case,  the  law  was 
perhaps  not  known,  —  at  any  rate,  not  regarded  ;  so 
that  the  popular  feeling  had  full  sway.  Joab,  as 
spokesman  of  this  feeling,  remonstrated  in  vain.  He 
wished  the  people  might  be  a  hundred  times  as  many, 
but  protested,  along  witli  all  the  captains  of  the  host, 
against  what  they  thought .  the  mad  project  of  the 
king.  The  census  was  taken,  notwithstanding,  and 
with  results  amply  to  gratify  the  royal  pride. 

But  at  that,  and  much  later  ages,f  fantastic  and 
unreal  causes  were  assigned  to  any  great  calamity. 

*  Exodus  XXX.  1 2. 

t  Thug  cholera,  famine,  and  the  Russian  war  were  all  three  con- 
fidently traced  to  the  guilt  which  the  British  nation  had  incurred  by  the 
"Maynooth  grant  "  in  1845. 


CENSUS   OF  THE  TRIBES.  13T 

A  pestilence  or  famine  was  no  strange  thing  in  that 
climate ;  but  the  religious  terror  of  its  coming  must 
be  met  by  assigning  a  religious  and  not  a  physical 
cause.  A  little  while  before,  at  such  a  visitation, 
instead  of  referring  it  to  any  recent  guilt  of  the 
present  dynasty,  an  oracle  had  said,*  that  it  was 
"  for  Saul's  bloody  house,  because  he  had  slaughtered 
the  Gibeonites ; "  and,  on  the  strength  of  this,  David 
had  appeased  their  kinsmen's  sullen  revenge  by  giv- 
ing them  seven  innocent  boys  to  hang,  which  they 
mercilessly  did, — seven  of  the  sons  and  grandsons 
of  Saul.  The  lonely  watch  of  the  bereaved  Rizpah, 
protecting  (like  Antigone)  the  dear  remains  from 
desecration,  sheds  a  single  gleam  of  humanity  across 
the  tragical  gloom. 

The  same  cruel  superstition,  shared  this  time  by 
the  king  himself,  saw  in  a  similar  infliction  the  chas- 
tisement of  his  fault  in  numbering  the  people.  The 
"  seventy  thousand  "  who  perished  were  thought  to 
be  vicarious  sufferers  for  his  guilt.  The  calamity 
was  so  far  relieved,  that  no  inhuman  expiation  was 
enjoined  this  time,  as  before ;  and  it  was  so  far  a 
mercy  that  it  probably  checked  the  too  rapid  advance 
the  state  was  making  towards  a  pure  and  compact 
despotism.  The  event  dwelt  so  profoundly  in  the 
popular  mind,  that  the  first  thought  of  the  census 
was  referred  to  God's  own  prompting,  who  sought  an 
occasion  to  punish  the  sins  of  the  people ;  and  after- 
wards to  Satan,  the  nation's  adversary.  It  was 
further  said,  that  a  prophet  warned  David  to  make 
his  choice  of  the  three  calamities  of  war,  famine,  and 

*  2  Samuel,  chap.  xxi. 


138  DAVID. 

pestilence,  and  that  his  piety  chose  the  last ;  and, 
finally,  that  the  angel  of  Death  was  seen  to  stand  on 
Mount  Moriah,  on  the  spot  where  the  brazen  altar  of 
the  temple  afterwards  stood,  and  for  fifty  shekels  of 
silver  (which  the  later  account  magnifies  into  six  hun- 
dred of  gold)  David  bought  the  piece  of  ground  from 
the  Jebusite  king  Araunah,  and  built  an  altar  there.* 
This  census  of  the  tribes  is  King  David's  last  re- 
corded public  act.  It  is  significant  of  the  fixed  pur- 
pose he  had  held,  only  deferred  by  the  troubles  of  his 
reign,  to  provide  for  the  more  perfect  organization  of 
a  priesthood,  and  the  splendour  of  a  temple  ritual. 
As  expiation  of  his  faults,  or  as  the  free-will  offering 
of  his  piety,  he  had  made  large  preparations  for  the 
work  so  magnificently  executed  by  his  successor. 
Ever  since  the  establishing  of  the  high  place  of  wor- 
ship with  the  sacred  ark  at  Jerusalem,  he  had 
worked  steadily  to  that  end.  We  have  still  the  weary 
chronicle  of  names,  which  the  hierarchy  gratefully 
preserved,  in  memory  of  his  pious  labours.  But  it 
was  now  too  late  for  him  to  engage  in  any  further 
enterprise  on  a  large  scale.  Exhausted  by  the 
fatigues  and  exposures  of  his  arduous  life,  he  had 
reached  already  at  seventy  a  decrepit  and  comfortless 
old  age.  His  failing  energy  was  yet  enough  to  baffle 
Adonijah's  hasty  ambition,  and  establish  the  boy  Sol- 
omon as  his  successor,  —  already  a  singular  stretch 
of  arbitrary  power  for  the  free  state  of  Israel,  to 
which  he  had  been  called  by  the  popular  voice,  and 
had  taken  oath  as  a  constitutional  king, — and  then 
he  died ;  leaving  to  Solomon,  as  his  last  bequest,  a  few 

♦  2  Samuel,  chap.  xxiv. ;  and  1  Chronicles,  chap.  xxi. 


CHARACTER.  139 

instructions  of  his  implacable  policy,  and  a  brief  hymn 
to  set  forth  the  pattern  of  kingly  virtue.* 

There  are  few  characters  in  history  which  perplex 
the  moral  judgment  more  than  that  of  David.  To 
the  grateful  thought  of  an  after  age  he  was  the  model 
prince  of  the  Hebrew  monarchy,  the  type  of  the  Mes- 
siah, or  ideal  Prince,  who  should  hereafter  fulfil  the 
nation's  hope,  and  be  sovereign  of  the  world.  The 
religious  mind  of  Christendom  has  represented  him 
as  the  "  man  after  God's  own  heart  ;  "  the  royal 
Psalmist,  or  inspired  and  prophetic  Bard ;  the  pecu- 
liar champion  and  favourite  of  Jehovah ;  the  man 
who  could  fearlessly  and  truly  say,  "  My  transgression 
is  forgiven,  and  my  sin  is  covered  over."  It  has  even 
been  believed  that  God's  covenant,  made  with  Abra- 
ham, Isaac,  and  Jacob,  was  explicitly  renewed  with 
him  and  his  posterity  ;  and  that  the  future  Sovereign 
of  the  world  must  by  a  divine  guaranty  be  one  of  lin- 
eal descent  from  him.  All  these  views,  again,  are  re- 
flected in  the  various  utterances  of  the  Hebrew  mind, 
in  various  passages  of  Scripture.  His  faults  and 
crimes  have  been  forgotten,  in  the  vague  splendour 
that  illuminates  his  princely  name.  This  is  due  in 
part  to  tlie  gratitude  of  the  priesthood  towards  its 
royal  patron.  It  was  a  necessary  policy  with  him, 
even  if  it  had  not  been  a  cause  so  much  after  his  own 
heart,  to  reconcile  that  body  to  the  monarchy,  espe- 
cially after  its  wide  estrangement  from  Saul.  What- 
ever the  service  was,  it  was  amply  recompensed  in 
the  eulogies  of  the  religious  historians,  and  in  a 
quality  of  fame  such  as  scarce  belongs  to  any  other. 

*  2  Samuel  xxiii.  2  -  5  ;  1  Kings  ii.  2  -  9. 


140  DAVID. 

Facts  were  willingly  forgotten,  or  studiously  sup- 
pressed, to  make  history  an  echo  of  grateful  fancy. 
The  writer  of  the  Chronicles  passes  by  in  silence 
what  the  Book  of  Samuel  records  and  reprobates  as 
crime ;  enlarging  to  weariness,  instead,  on  the  ser- 
vices he  rendered  to  the  priestly  body.  So  that, 
almost  as  far  back  as  our  records  date,  the  true  char- 
acter of  the  man  is  in  danger  of  being  covered  up  in 
undiscriminating  eulogy. 

Almost  in  direct  contrast  to  this  is  the  judgment 
we  should  be  apt  to  form  from  the  bare  detail  of  his 
acts.  On  the  page  of  history  names  of  the  darkest 
reproach  would  be  set  against  him,  —  names  hardly 
to  be  efifaced  by  any  service  he  could  be  shown  to 
have  rendered.  It  is  something  more  than  charity, 
it  is  fanatical  partisanship,  which  could  overlook  the 
gross  and  horrid  charges  of  treachery,  licentiousness, 
and  murder.  The  man  so  idealized  in  the  fond  ap- 
prehension of  the  religious  world,  shows  his  splendid 
qualities  on  a  dark  background  of  passion,  weakness, 
and  guilt.  And  it  is  not  an  easy  task  to  reconcile 
the  two  contending  views,  or  to  persuade  ourselves 
that  we  are  rendering  account  of  the  same  man. 
Yet,  unquestionably,  each  is  in  its  measure  right; 
and  extravagant  eulogy  is  no  more  false  than  un- 
qualified condemnation. 

The  crimes  of  David  are  sternly  and  sufficiently 
told  in  the  plain  story  of  his  life.  They  need  no  ex- 
aggeration, no  rhetorical  exhibition,  to  set  them 
forth.  And  what  was  regarded  as  no  crime  then,  — 
his  remorseless  policy  of  extermination,  the  savage 
tortures  he  wreaked  on  defenceless  prisoners,  the 


CHARACTER.  141 

piratical  freedom  with  which  he  enforced  an  outlaw's 
claim  for  food  and  shelter,  —  are  such  as  shock  our 
moral  sense  too  much  to  let  us  err  easily  on  the  side 
of  lenity.  A  grave  historical  judgment  will  be  quite 
as  apt  to  wrong  him  in  one  way,  as  the  blindly  na- 
tional judgment  of  his  people  wrongs  the  simple  truth 
in  another  way. 

In  the  very  fact  of  the  exalting  and  idealizing  view 
that  has  commonly  been  held  of  him,  we  see  the 
strongest  proof  that  he  was  eminently  a  man  for  his 
own  time  and  people.  No  other  could  have  rendered, 
then  and  there,  the  service  rendered  by  him.  It  is 
not  so  much  by  the  detail  of  a  man's  acts,  as  by  the 
mark  he  makes  in  human  history,  that  we  know  his 
real  greatness,  and  the  quality  of  his  soul.  David 
has  unquestionably  exalted  and  not  debased  our 
apprehension  of  the  standard  of  human  character. 
His  lasting  influence  upon  the  world  has  not  been 
for  evil,  but  very  greatly  for  good.  Here  is  his  real 
vindication.  His  faults,  his  crimes,  black  and  base 
as  they  were,  have  been  honestly  told  by  one  who 
was  bold  enough  to  censure,  yet  in  the  main  strongly 
moved  to  honour.  A  man  who  looks  his  own  worst 
fault  in  the  face,  and  gathers  up  the  whole  energy  of 
his  soul  in  the  struggle  against  it,  may  be  pitiable  or 
execrable  in  his  fall,  but  he  is  heroic  in  his  recovery. 
And  it  was  so  with  him.  The  parable  of  the  ewe- 
lamb,  and  Nathan's  honest  Thou  art  the  man,  star- 
tled him  at  once  from  his  passionate  and  infatuated 
dream,  revealed  to  him  the  very  bottom  of  his  cor- 
rupted heart,  and  put  him  upon  a  course  of  penitence 
how  deep  and  sincere,  a  struggle  how  agonizing  and 


142  DAVID.  , 

prolonged,  none  doubt  who  have  ever  known  him 
through  the  medium  of  his  own  confessions  in  the 
Psalms.* 

To  say  notliing  of  the  plea  that  his  vices  and  crim- 
inal exercises  of  power  were  only  such  as  were  com- 
mon to  his  age  and  station,  as  Oriental  despot,  while 
his  virtues  and  repentance  were  his  own,  —  a  plea 
to  be  used  with  caution  as  vindicating  a  superior 
nature,  that  should  disdain  to  employ  or  allow  it,— 
a -single  thought  shows  David's  high  and  true  position 
in  Hebrew  history.  Compare  his  reign  as  it  was,  — 
with  all  its  calamities  and  faults  a  reign  that  has 
dwelt  so  gratefully  in  the  popular  memory  to  this 
day,  —  with  the  troubled  time  that  went  before,  and 
with  what  it  would  have  been  had  its  fortunes  been 
intrusted  to  the-  best  and  ablest  of  the  men  by  whom 
he  was  surrounded.  We  know  not  one  in  whom 
some  quality  of  ferocity  or  weakness  would  not  have 
been  fatal.  Still  less  can  we  think  of  one  who,  with 
the  powers  requisite  to  the  mere  task  of  sustaining 
his  position,  combined  that  higher  quality  of  intellect 
and  religious  fervour  which  made  David  so  truly  the 
representative  of  the  best  traits  of  that  race  and  age. 
In  him  first  the  nation  of  Israel  found  its  name  and 
place  as  a  nation  vindicated :  in  him  alone  —  the 
warrior,  minstrel,  ruler,  counsellor,  man  of  the  peo- 
ple, and  even  (on  occasion)  priest  or  prophet — the 
fulfilment  of  its  just  desire,  and  the  embodiment  at 
once  of  its  noblest  and  most  various  tendency. 

At  the  heart  and  centre  of  his  spiritual  nature 
there  is  a  degree  of  tenderness,  generosity,  and  re- 

■*  See  especially  Psalms  xxxii.  and  li. 


OUTWARD   AND   INWARD   LIFE.'  143 

ligious  trust,  which  have  always,  in  the  last  resort, 
after  every  deduction  of  stern  and  even  unfriendly 
criticism,  compelled  those  who  truly  understood  him 
to  sum  up  their  judgment  in  terms  of  admiration 
and  honour.  His  life,  in  its  long  and  varied  course, 
is  an  expression  of  the  want,  the  struggle,  the  hope, 
the  passion,  the  lawlessness,  the  aspiration,  of  his  age. 
On  the  page  of  history  we  see  him,  from  first  to  last, 
the  type  and  embodiment  of  his  people's  character ; 
and  we  can  almost  forget  the  man  in  this  spectacle 
of  the  working  out  of  a  nation's  life.  But  another 
and  more  enduring  record  he  has  left  of  himself, 
wherein  his  personality  is  never  lost,  and  can  never 
be  forgotten.  Here,  the  nfan  David  becomes  a  living 
element  in  the  world's  life  of  religious  thought.  It 
was  real  occasions  that  bred  those  psalms  of  his, — 
their  true  expression ;  —  so  true  to  the  type  of 
thought  and  the  nature  of  the  occasion,  that  more 
than  all  other  compositions  they  reflect  our  own 
deepest  and  highest  moods,  and .  meet  the  precise 
condition  of  our  spiritual  nature.  This  other  life 
of  himself  he  has  given  to  the  world,  —  running 
in  a  plane  so  far  higher  than  that  eventful  course 
already  traced,  yet  touching  it  and  made  one  with 
it  at  each  crisis  of  his  destiny.  The  song  that 
echoed  in  a  lonely  cave,  or  rang  in  the  shout  of 
a  joyous  multitude,  or  consoled  a  father's  weary 
exile  in  the  rebellion  of  a  son,  registers  to  the  world 
a  spiritual  fact,  and  becomes  the  precise  utterance, 
the  cherished  record,  of  every  religious  mind  touched 
by  a  kindred  experience.  From  the  attitude  of  apol- 
ogists we  rise  unconsciously  to  the  mood  of  earnest 


144  DAVID. 

and  grateful  admiration.  We  remember  the  human 
features  only  in  this  nobler  transfigured  likeness. 
The  vexed  and  passionate  life  of  the  petty  sovereign 
of  Israel  is  forgotten ;  and  as  a  monarch  in  the  realm 
of  emotion  and  thought,  as  a  living  power  in  the 
world  of  mind,  we  render  grateful  and  willing  hon- 
our to  the  religious  genius  and  the  exalted  destiny 
of  David. 


V.    SOLOMON. 

THE  reign  of  Solomon,  lasting  for  another  sacred 
period  of  forty  years,  crowned  and  completed 
the  brief  splendour  of  the  Hebrew  monarchy.  It 
was  the  culmination  of  the  people's  opulence,  power, 
enterprise,  and  intellectual  activity,  —  the  fullest 
maturity  which  the  national  existence  ever  reached. 
Preceded  as  it  was  by  the  dissension  and  sorrows 
of  David's  time,  and  followed  by  the  distractions 
of  an  enfeebled  and  divided  realm,  it  became  to 
later  memory  the  golden  noon  of  the  prosperity 
of  Israel.  The  report  of  Solomon's  wealth  was 
fabulous,  and  his  name  a  synonyme  of  wisdom  and 
magnificence.  He  knew,  said  the  traditions  of  the 
East,  the  secrets  of  the  invisible  world,  and  famil- 
iar spirits  brought  him  the  hidden  treasures  of  the 
earth,  gold  and  gems  and  pearls.  To  this  day,  in 
Jewish  and  Arab  fancy,  he  is  the  Prince  of  Magi- 
cians ;  and  Solomon's  name  and  seal  are  the  most 
potent  spell  to  control  daemonic  agencies,  or  compel 
the  genii  to  their  task. 

It  was  while  almost  a  boy,  in  the  flush  and  con- 
fidence of  boyhood,  that  he  assumed  the  charge  left 
him  by  his  dying  father.  It  was  David's  partiality, 
and   Bathsheba's  jealous  vigilance,  that  foiled  the 


146  SOLOMON. 

rival  palace  intrigues,  and  made  Solomon  heir  of 
the  royal  power.  With  far  other  qualifications  than 
those  which  had  identified  his  father's  fortunes  with 
the  destiny  of  the  Hebrew  people,  he  entered  upon 
a  task  that  must  try  most  severely  his  wisdom  and 
abihty.  Without  the  depth  of  personal  experience, 
the  fervid  passion  tempered  by  wary  policy,  the  pro- 
found popular  sympathies,  the  fine  religious  sensibil- 
ity, the  instinct  and  the  habit  of  command,  which 
were  the  outfit  of  "  the  heroic  and  royal  psalmist," 
•  and  without  the  spontaneous  welcome  and  approval 
of  the  people,  which  recognized  in  David  both  a 
providential  and  a  constitutional  sovereign, — a  boy,* 
brought  up  within  the  palace-walls,  selected  by  a 
mother's  fondness  and  a  father's  arbitrary  choice, 
obliged  to  put  down  by  the  bloody  policy  of  a  jealous 
despotism  the  rivals  of  his  power,  though  his  brothers 
in  blood,  —  he  made  but  an  inauspicious  entrance 
upon  a  course  fruitful  of  so  much  mingled  good  and 
evil  to  his  realm.  Deep  was  his  need  of  that  guiding 
wisdom,  which  was  his  first  and  only  prayer,  when 
"  at  Gibeon,  in  a  dream  by  night,"  Jehovah  appeared 
before  him,  and  he  besought  "  an  understanding 
heart  to  judge  the  people,  to  discern  between  good 
and  bad  ;  for  who  (said  he)  is  able  to  judge  this  thy 
so  great  a  people  ?  ' 

The  first  recorded  acts  of  Solomon's  reign  illus- 
trate the  wide  departure  already  made  from  the 
customs  of  a  people  by  instinct  free  and  tenacious 
of  tlieir  liberty,  and   the   rapid  advance   that  was 

*  Only  twelve  years  old  at  his  accession,  according  to  the  Jewish 
tradition. 


ACCESSION.  147 

making  towards  an  irresponsible  absolutism.  They 
illustrate,  too,  that  precocious  sagacity  and  remorseless 
policy  often  nursed  in  those  brought  up  in  the  habit 
and  anticipation  of  authority.  A  delicate  prince  of 
the  harem,  he  had  already  seen  his  elder  brother 
Adonijah  put  down  in  his  favour  at  his  father's 
dictate,  and  his  life  only  conditionally  spared ;  and 
when  the  elder  still  hoped  to  supplant  the  younger, 
and  cautiously  solicited  through  Bathsheba  to  be  al- 
lowed to  marry  the  beautiful  Abishag,  and  with  her 
to  take  the  late  king's  household,  Solomon  detected 
the  lurking  conspiracy,  and  had  him  despatched  at 
once.  An  Oriental  monarchy  suifers  "  no  brother 
near  the  throne."  Joab,  who  was  charged  with 
sharing  the  conspiracy,  was  slain  at  the  altar  in 
expiation  of  his  many  crimes.  Abiathar,  the  high- 
priest,  was  banished,  as  in  fulfilment  of  the  tradi- 
tionary curse  on  Eli's  family,  that  they  should  be- 
come beggars,  and  the  meanest  underlings  of  the 
priests.  Nor  was  a  pretext  long  wanting  to  make 
way  with  Shimei,  a  man  of  Saul's  family,  who  had 
mocked  David  in  his  misfortunes,  and  been  guarded 
since  with  the  jealous  eye  of  despotism.  These  acts 
were  the  familiar  policy  of  irresponsible  sovereignty, 
and  are  related  quietly,  as  things  of  course.  A  more 
pleasing  instance  of  the  young  king's  sagacity  is  told, 
in  the  case  of  the  two  women,  mothers  of  a  dead  and 
living  child.  He  offered  to  divide  the  living  child 
between  the  two,  when  the  agony  of  the  real  mother 
at  once  revealed  to  him  on  which  side  the  true  claim 
lay. 

Inexorable  promptness  of  state  policy,  and  sagacity 


148  SOLOMON. 

in  dispensing  justice,  thus  confirmed  whatever  was 
wanting  in  Solomon's  title.  The  royal  power  was 
effectually  settled  upon  him,  and  during  his  long  life 
the  sceptre  never  once  wavered  in  his  grasp.  The 
kingdom  came  to  his  hands,  on  the  whole,  strong, 
flourishing,  united,  and  loyal.  He  felt  his  strength 
and  the  advantage  of  his  position.  His  clear  native 
intellect  taught  him  that  inactivity  was  weakness, 
and  that  he  must  build  upon  the  foundation  his  fa- 
ther had  laid.  The  genius  of  the  people  was  averse 
to  conquest.  The  frontier  was  already  larger  than 
could  be  well  maintained.  Independent  Canaanitish 
tribes  were  still  existing,  that  might  easily  league 
themselves  with  the  formidable  tributaries  Damascus 
and  Idumaea.  These  seem  to  have  taken  advantage 
of  the  first  unsettled  years  of  his  reign,  for  a  com- 
bined revolt.*  Some  of  them  compromised  their 
hostility  on  easy  terms,  so  as  to  keep  a  good  share 
of  independence.  Others  held  walled  towns  on  the 
Philistine  frontier,  defying  from  their  ramparts  the 
field-force  of  the  Hebrews.  Only  after  the  alliance 
with  Egypt  were  they* compelled  to  a  surrender  by 
the  skill  of  the  Egyptians  and  their  engines  of  assault. 
The  towns  were  made  the  dowry  of  Pharaoh's  daugh- 
ter, and  the  inhabitants  reduced  to  slavery.  Thus, 
like  the  kings  of  Egypt  and  Assyria,  Solomon  had  a 
numerous  class  of  slaves,  as  the  raw  material  of  his 
public  works. t 

The  policy  of  the  kingdom  was  clearly  peace.     In- 

♦  The  Second  Psalm  is  considered  to  be  an  ode  of  defiance,  written 
at  this  emergency. 
t  1  Kings  ix.  16,  21. 


ALLIANCES.      •  149 

ternal  resources  were  to  be  developed,  and  former 
conquests  to  be  turned  to  practical  account.  At  the 
same  time,  political  unity  must  be  consolidated,  and 
the  splendour  of  the  monarchy  enhanced,  by  such 
great  national  works  as  should  make  Jerusalem  the 
rival  or  equal  of  neighbouring  capitals ;  while  the 
state  religion  should  be  organized  in  an  Establish- 
ment, with  temple  and  ritual  to  befit  its  claim  of 
pre-eminence  over  the  religion  of  every  other  people. 
These  several  points  define  what  was  the  aim,  and  in 
some  regards  the  brilliant  success,  of  the  reign  of 
Solomon. 

For  the  first  time,  therefore,  under  this  splendid 
and  imposing  rule,  the  Hebrew  nation  found  itself 
abreast  of  the  enterprise  of  the  day,  and  in  active 
competition  for  a  lucrative  commerce.  Solomon's 
discreet  policy  secured  the  alliance  of  the  two  bor- 
der monarchies,  Egypt  and  Phoenicia.  His  father's 
prowess  had  given  him  control  of  the  Syrian  desert 
and  the  ports  of  the  Red  Sea,  Elath  and  Ezion- 
geber. 

Egypt  had  before  been  jealous  of  the  growing 
monarchy  of  the  Hebrews.  David's  chieftains  had 
signalized  themselves  by  personal  encounter  with 
Egyptian  champions ;  and  Hadad,  the  Edomite  prince 
who  fled  from  Joab's  massacre,  had  found  wel- 
come, and  a  queen's  sister  in  marriage,  at  Memphis. 
But  now  tlie  course  of  policy  was  changed.  Pha- 
raoh—  the  last  monarch  of  a  dynasty  perhaps  al- 
ready weakened  and  broken  —  was  glad  to  recognize 
the  firm  sovereignty  of  Jerusalem  as  a  fixed  fact. 
His  daughter  became  Solomon's  queen,  and  highest 


160  SOLOMON. 

in  station  of  his  many  wives.  The  military  skill  of 
Egypt  was  now  brought  in  to  extinguish  the  petty 
independencies  it  had  once  aided  to  harass  the  Is- 
raelite border ;  and  its  friendly  temper  was  of  profit- 
able account  in  the  growing  commerce  of  the  Red 
Sea. 

The  narrow  strip  of  seaboard  called  Phoenicia  was 
the  last  remnant  of  the  once  proud  dynasty  of  the 
Canaanites,  —  the  inheritor  of  its  arts,  its  civiliza- 
tion, and  its  cruel  religious  rites.  The  seat  of  Phoe- 
nician power  was  already  transferred  to  the  almost 
impregnable  island  of  Tyre,  where  it  stood  five  years 
at  bay  against  Shalmanezer,  and  long  after  defied 
the  forces  of  Alexander  in  a  siege  of  seven  months. 
What  it  had  lost  on  land  it  had  more  than  made  up 
by  sea.  The  rich  commerce  of  Tarshish  (Tartessus, 
or  Spain),  and  a  monopoly  of  trade  among  the  Gre- 
cian isles,  poured  the  wealth  of  the  Western  world 
into  the  splendid  ports  of  Tyre  and  Sidon  ;  while  the 
empire  of  Carthage  retained,  centuries  later,  the  in- 
human rites  of  Canaan,  and  obstinately  disputed  with 
Rome  the  mastery  of  the  world.  David  had  with- 
held his  hand  from  making  good  the  patriarchal 
claim  to  this  portion  of  the  Promised  Land;  and 
Solomon  was  too  sagacious  and  worldly  wise  to  over- 
look the  superior  advantage  of  commerce  over  con- 
quest. A  league  was  easily  entered  into,  and  to  all 
appearance  faithfully  kept.  For  trade,  there  should 
be  no  interference  with  the  Phoenician  monopoly  of 
the  Mediterranean  ;  for  public  works,  ample  assist- 
ance might  be  had  from  the  superior  Tyrian  skill. 
The  expandmg  commercial  enterprise   of  the   He- 


COMMERCE  AND  PUBLIC  WORKS.        151 

brews  found  its  way  along  the  Red  Sea  to  Sheba,  or 
Yemen,  the  fertile  southern  shore  of  Arabia,  the  na- 
tive land  of  rare  spices  and  pearls.  Their  traffickers 
gathered  gold  and  ivory,  sandal- wood  (for  musical 
instruments  and  ornamental  work),  and  rare  animals, 
"  apes  and  peacocks,"  from  the  African  or  Indian 
coast,  while  their  Tyrian  allies  opened  to  them  the 
market  of  the  Levant ;  and  that  first  Ionic  Confeder- 
acy of  Greece,  at  its  stately  festival  in  Delos,  burned 
perhaps  the  incense  brought  in  Solomon's  merchant- 
ships  :  — 

"  Sabaean  odours  from  the  spicy  shore 
Of  Arable  the  blest." 

The  extensive  and  profitable  commerce  of  which 
Palestine  thus  became  the  centre  laid  the  founda- 
tion of  the  immense  wealth  of  Solomon's  realm,  and 
bore  out  the  lavish  expenditure  of  his  public  edifices. 
His  ambition,  largely  gratified  here,  outran  his  pru- 
dence in  other  quarters ;  and  the  uncertain  traffic 
across  the  desert  —  for  which  he  established  the 
princely  station  of  Tadmor  or  Palmyra,  and  main- 
tained other  costly  and  vexatious  outposts  —  may  have 
led  to  those  exactions  which  imbittered  the  people, 
and  ultimately  broke  up  the  integrity  of  the  kingdom. 

Of  Solomon's  public  works,  by  far  the  most  gor- 
geous, and  the  one  most  familiarly  associated  with  his 
name,  as  well  as  most  important  in  the  religious  his- 
tory of  the  Jews,  was  the  Temple  on  Mount  Moriah. 
This  steep  and  rugged  elevation,  half  a  mile  to  the 
northeast  of  Zion,  had  been  left  outside  the  original 
city  of  David,  though  one  of  the  little  cluster  of  hills 
making  the  well-defined  site  of  Jerusalem.     Neither 


152  SOLOMON. 

was  it  a  spot  of  any  special  traditionary  sanctity  ;  for 
ancient  worship  souglit  "  high  places,"  and  David's 
jilace  of  prayer  had  been  the  loftier  summit  of  Olivet, 
hard  by.  The  altar  erected  on  Moriah  when  the  pes- 
tilence was  stayed  was  the  first  consecration  of  the 
ground  afterwards  so  holy :  it  was  a  later  tradition, 
probably,  that  identified  it  as  the  spot  where  Abra- 
ham prepared  to  sacrifice  his  son.  The  new  religious 
consecration  made  it  a  fit  centre  of  the  national  wor- 
sliip  and  faith.  Nothing  could  so  strengthen  the 
monarch  in  his  capital  as  the  founding  of  a  perma- 
nent loyal  priesthood,  a  splendid  central  sanctuary, 
and  a  gorgeous  temple  ritual ;  while  local  jealous- 
ies or  the  rival  claims  of  priestly  families  would  be 
merged  in  a  single  establishment,  that  should  defy- 
all  rivalry.  One  family  of  chief-priests  had,  at  the 
king's  edict,  gone  into  banishment  and  disgrace. 
The  remaining  one  should  be  the  nucleus  of  an  Order 
to  represent  by  authority  the  religion  of  the  nation, 
and  conduct  its  stately  ritual. 

The  gathered  treasures  and  pious  gifts  of  David,  as 
well  as  the  fast  increasing  revenue  of  the  kingdom, 
were  lavishly  spent  upon  this  favourite  scheme  of  com- 
bined piety,  policy,  and  pride.  The  rough  summit  of 
the  hill  was  levelled  with  immense  toil,  and  widened 
by  terraces  and  vast  embankments.  From  the  deep 
valley  of  Jehoshaphat,  wliere  runs  the  narrow  stream 
of  Kedron,  a  wall  was  built,  four  hundred  and  fifty 
feet  in  height,  of  enormous  blocks  of  limestone  mor- 
tised into  the  solid  rock,  —  some  single  stones  being 
more  than  thirty  feet  in  length.  While  the  rest  of 
the  edifice  is  utterly  destroyed,  not  a  vestige  even 


THE  TEMPLE.  153 

remaining  of  the  two  Jewish  temples,  or  of  the  Chris- 
tian church  that  afterwards  occupied  its  site,  portions 
of  the  enormous  rock-embankment,  rivalling  the  great 
works  of  Egypt  or  the  Cyclopic  architecture  of  the 
early  Greeks,  still  flank  the  sacred  hill. 

The  Temple  itself  was  built  after  the  pattern  of  the 
old  tabernacle,  —  i.  e.  on  the  square  model  of  a  tent, 
—  the  curtains  being  replaced  by  solid  walls  of  stone. 
In  size  it  was  but  a  small  chapel,  thirty  feet  wide  and 
something  more  than  a  hundred  long.  The  "  ora- 
cle," shrine,  or  most  sacred  place,  —  where  in  Pagan 
temples  was  the  image  of  the  Divinity,  and  perhaps 
the  city  treasury,  —  was  a  cube  of  thirty  feet,  divided 
from  the  rest  by  doors  elaborately  carved,  and  a 
richly  embroidered  "  veil "  of  blue,  crimson,  and 
scarlet  drapery.  Its  walls  were  wainscotted  with 
cedar  and  overlaid  with  gold.  As  the  special  dwell- 
ing-place of  Jehovah,  it  was  a  place  of  splendour  and 
mystery,  impenetrably  dark,  and  to  be  trodden  by  no 
human  foot,  save  when  once  a  year  the  high-priest 
touched  the  "  mercy-seat  "  with  the  blood  of  the  vic- 
tim slain  for  ransom  of  the  people's  sin.  In  this 
most  secret  and  holy  habitation  was  nothing  but  the 
"  Ark  of  Jehovah,"  a  small  gilded  chest  of  Egyptian 
pattern,  fabricated  (it  was  said)  as  far  back  as  the 
wandering  in  the  desert,  and  containing  the  inesti- 
mable relic  of  the  stone  tables  of  the  Law,  graven  by 
Jehovah's  own  hand.  Tradition  had  added  to  these 
Aaron's  flowering  rod  and  a  golden  vase  of  manna ; 
but  when  the  ark  was  opened  in  Solomon's  time,  only 
the  two  stone  tables  were  found  in  it.  The  lid  of  the 
chest  was  of  solid  gold,  and  was  the  "  mercy-seat,"  or 

7 


154  SOLOMON. 

Jehovah's  own  resting-place,  where  he  dwelt  "be- 
tween the  cherubim."  These  were  winged  figures  of 
uifcertain  form,*  whose  outstretched  wings  met  above 
its  centre,  and  touched  the  opposite  walls  of  the 
shrine.  An  apartment  twice  as  long,  containing  the 
table  of  shew-bread,  the  incense-altar,  and  the  sacred 
candlesticks,  and  a  narrow  porch,t  completed  what 
is  properly  known  as  the  Temple, —  a  structure  small 
in  dimensions,  but  most  lavishly  decorated  with  carved 
and  gilded  wood,  and  furnished  with  costly  and  sump- 
tuous furniture  for  every  office  of  the  Hebrew  wor- 
ship. This  was  Jehovah's  house,  into  which  none 
but  his  priests  might  enter. 

The  levelled  space  around  it  was  enclosed  by  walls 
and  porchps,  the  widest  court  of  all  being  about  a 
furlong  square.  Of  its  details  no  accurate  notion 
can  be  had  from  the  accounts  preserved  to  us.  It 
is  enough  to  say,  that  apartments  were  reserved  for 
a  large  number  of  attendants  on  the  temple-service  ; 
and  that  ample  provision  was  made  for  sacrifices, 
or  other  public  ceremonials,  on  the  largest  scale. 
The  great  brazen  altar  was  thirty  feet  square  and 
fifteen  feet  high.  Its  fire  was  kept  always  burning, 
and  every  facility  was  furnished  for  the  despatch  of 
the  enormous  number  of  victims  sometimes  slaugh- 
tered. In  some  of  the  many  apartments  were  kept 
relics  of  the  ancient  tabernacle.  Spacious  courts 
were  provided  for  the   people,  for  women,  and  for 

*  They  were  probably  similar  to  the  winged  bulls,  or  eagle-headed 
figures,  found  in  Assyria  and  Egypt. 

t  Which  the  later  account  (2  Chron.  iii.  4)  converts  into  a  tower  near 
two  hundred  feet  in  height. 


THE  TEMPLE.  155 

strangers.  In  the  porches  was  ample  space  for 
walks,  for  conversation,  and  for  teachers  of  wisdom 
with  their  classes.  All  was  suitably  adorned  with 
colonnades,  or  single  columns,  with  carved  work, 
brazen  utensils,  prodigious  vases  of  water,  and  sculp- 
tured forms  of  beasts.  In  short,  while  the  temple 
proper  was  a  building  of  moderate  size  and  no 
architectural  pretensions,  remarkable  chiefly  for  its 
rich  Oriental  symbolism,  the  marvellous  wealth 
of  its  materials,  and  the  sanctity  of  its  relics,  the 
entire  structure,  like  a  fort  or  castle,  was  as  it  were 
a  city  by  itself,  —  a  populous  and  busy  little  town, 
sacred  by  religious  associations,  and  gorgeous  with 
the  perpetual  pomp  and  splendour  of  the  ritual. 

For  seven  years  and  a  half  it  was  in  building, 
under  such  skilful  hands,  that,  it  is  said,  every  stone 
was  carved  and  matched  beforehand  to  fit  its  place, 
and  not  the  blow  of  a  hammer  had  to  be  struck  in 
the  whole  long  labour.  When  it  was  completed,  a 
grand  festival  of  fourteen  days  was  proclaimed,  to 
follow  one  of  the  yearly  national  feasts.  The  ark 
was  carried  in  pomp  from  the  city  of  David,  and 
laid  in  its  permanent  resting-place  in  the  shrine, 
beneath  the  outspread  wings  of  the  cherubim;  — 
the  last  of  its  history,  for  when  or  how  it  perished 
was  never  told.*  "  Two  and  twenty  thousand  oxen, 
and  an  hundred  and  twenty  thousand  sheep,"  were 

=*  Josiah  is  said  (2  Chron.  xxxv.  3)  to  have  restored  it  to  the 
shrine,  whence  it  was  taken  by  Manasseh ;  and  a  tradition  is  recorded 
(2  Maccabees  ii.  5,  7)  that  Jeremiah,  after  the  destruction  of  the  tem- 
ple, hid  it  in  a  cave  on  Mount  Moriah,  where  it  will  be  found  at  the 
final  restoration  of  the  chosen  people. 


156  SOLOMON. 

slain  as  "  the  sacrifice  of  peace-offerings,"  —  that  is, 
for  food  as  well  as  worship,  —  while  the  great  brazen 
altar  was  too  little  for  the  slaughter,  and  all  the 
court  was  "  hallowed  "  with  the  gacred  blood.  For 
this  occasion,  or  in  memory  of  it,  was  composed  the 
noble  prayer  of  Dedication  ascribed  to  Solomon  ; 
and  it  is  further  added,  that  when  the  prayer  was 
spoken  a  flame  from  heaven  consumed  the  sacrifice, 
and  Jehovah  himself,  in  visible  glory,  entered  the 
sacred  place,  so  that  the  priests  could  not  go  in  by 
reason  of  the  intolerable  splendour. 

The  debt  of  the  Hebrew  monarchy  to  the  national 
religion  and  priesthood  was  now  munificently  paid. 
The  holy  orders  were  put  upon  such  a  footing 
that  their  existence  was  henceforth  identified  with 
that  of  the  nation  itself ;  and  a  religious  centre  was 
established,  to  be  forever  the  object  of  the  people's 
most  tenacious  loyalty  and  faith.  In  every  possible 
way  —  by  song,  by  imposing  ceremonial,  by  solemn 
reading  of  the  Law,  by  gathering  to  the  sacred  fes- 
tivals—  the  temple  at  Jerusalem  came  to  be  asso- 
ciated with  the  enthusiastic  and  affectionate  rever- 
ence of  the  Jewish  mind.  Long  after  the  nation  of 
Israel  had  passed  away,  when  its  very  name  became 
a  reproach  and  its  people  a  curse,  the  traditionary 
glories  of  its  temple  lived  in  the  religious  imagina- 
tion of  Christendom,  and  formed  the  first  link  in  that 
chain  of  association  which  made  Jerusalem  the  holiest 
of  cities,  and  the  type  of  the  invisible  glories  of  the 
kingdom  of  heaven. 

On  the  footing  of  this  magnificent  establishment 
the  Priesthood  acquired  new  dignity,  and  the  ritual 


PRIESTHOOD  AND  RITUAL.  157 

was  modelled  upon  a  corresponding  scale.  It  is  to 
this  period  of  the  history,  therefore,  that  we  must 
ascribe  the  more  full  development  of  the  Levitical 
institutions  which  make  the  chief  burden  of  the 
Hebrew  code.  What  had  been  gradually  moulded 
out  of  old  tribal  customs,  or  adopted  from  the  prac- 
tice of  neighbouring  religions  and  sustained  by  the 
spontaneous  reverence  of  the  people,  became  now  an 
Institution,  fixed  and  upheld  by  public  authority. 
The  sacred  order  that  waited  on  the  sanctuary  made 
a  sort  of  Ecclesiastical  Court,  or  tribunal  to  define 
the  rules  and  conditions  of  all  matters  pertaining  to 
religion.  The  Book  of  "  Leviticus  "  contains  the 
substance,  or  the  earlier  form,  of  the  code  of  ecclesi- 
astical law,  and  along  with  it  a  few  traditionary  relics 
and  customs  of  the  earliest  time.*  A  foundation 
was  laid  for  that  prodigious  aftergrowth  of  tradition, 
which,  through  Talmud,  Cabbala,  and  the  doctrine 
of  Scribes  and  Pharisees,  so  overlaid  and  spoiled  the 
native  quality  of  the  Hebrew  faith.  The  form  was 
more  and  more  separated  from  the  spirit.  The  pom- 
pous ceremonial  became  an  enormous  scheme  of  sym- 
bolism to  the  more  reflective,  a  vain  and  supersti- 
tious show  to  those  who  looked  at  it  outwardly,  a 
narrow  and  enslaving  formalism  to  those  who  would 
win  merit  by  obedience,  a  fruitful  source  of  scep- 
ticism to  the  critical  temper  of  a  later  age.  The 
hearty  reverence  of  the  most  religious  portion  of  the 
people  could  never  be  thoroughly  identified  with  the 

*  This  book  contains  no  historical  matter,  properly  speaking  ;  only 
in  two  or  three  instances  a  narrative  form  is  given  to  some  ritual  enact- 
ment. 


158  SOLOMON. 

elaborate  ritual  or  the  requisitions  of  the  priestly- 
order.  The  more  gorgeous  the  public  show,  the 
more  removed  from  the  simplicity  of  faith  that  wor- 
shipped in  secret,  and  from  the  vivid,  earnest,  relig- 
ious sense  which  kindles  the  souls  of  men  as  fire  out 
of  heaven.  The  founding  of  Solomon's  Temple  and 
the  perfecting  of  its  ritual  became  the  first  symptom 
of  a  separation  of  the  form  from  the  life.  His  reign 
discloses  the  first  marked  tokens  of  the  prophetic  as 
opposed  to  the  priestly  order.  The  germ  was  sown, 
and  had  already  taken  root,  of  that  antagonism  which 
displayed  itself  so  fiercely  in  the  time  of  Christ. 

The  entire  system  of  Solomon's  public  works  was 
carried  out  in  the  same  spirit  that  founded  his  state- 
religion.  All  were  for  the  enlarging  and  adorning 
of  the  royal  city,  for  the  confirming  or  ostentatious 
exhibiting  of  the  royal  authority.  The  labour  of  thir- 
teen years  was  spent  in  the  construction  of  separate 
palaces  for  himself  and  the  queen,  ostensibly  to  do 
honour  to  the  dignity  of  his  Egyptian  bride  ;  or,  if  a 
religious  motive  must  be  assigned,  in  order  that  she, 
pagan  by  birth  and  faith,  might  not  dwell  in  the 
sacred  city  which  David  built.  The  king's  house 
was  greatly  superior  in  extent,  and  only  inferior  in 
costly  display,  to  the  temple  itself.  A  colonnade, 
with  steps  and  galleries  cut  in  the  solid  rock,  was 
made  to  connect  the  two,  that  by  a  royal  way  Sol- 
omon might  pass  to  the  sanctuary  to  perform  those 
priestly  services  which  in  old  time  made  part  -of  the 
ofiice  of  a  king. 

Nothing  could  exceed  the  sumptuous  splendour  of 
the  royal  establishment,  as  shown  in  the  details  which 


ROYAL  ESTABLISHMENT.  159 

have  been  preserved.  All  the  vessels  of  the  palace 
were  of  pure  gold.  As  for  silver,  it  was  "  nothing 
accounted  of  in  the  days  of  Solomon."  A  most  costly 
equipage  of  horses  and  chariots  was  quartered  in  the 
several  cities,  or  kept  in  attendance  at  the  capital. 
Water  was  brought  at  great  expense,  for  fountains  to 
adorn  the  city,  or  for  the  uses  of  the  temples,  from 
sources  so  remote  as  the  high  grounds  of  Bethlehem ; 
and,  whether  by  nature  or  art,  the  lofty  and  rugged 
eminences  of  the  capital  were  so  faithfully  supplied, 
that,  in  all  the  distress  of  the  sieges  it  underwent,  the 
torture  of  drought  was  never  felt.  The  pool  of  Si- 
loam,  the  healing  intermittent  spring  of  Bethesda, 
and  an  abundant  fountain  in  the  temple-court,  sup- 
plied from  the  adjacent  heights,  were  among  the 
most  conspicuous  advantages  of  this  now  stately  cap- 
ital. Where  the  deep  valley  skirting  the  hills  of 
Zion  and  Moriah  spreads  and  slopes  more  gently 
towards  the  east,  a  royal  garden,  or,  in  the  Oriental 
tongue,  a  paradise,  was  laid  out  in  keeping  with  the 
luxury  of  the  sumptuous  court.* 

To  crown  the  whole,  as  the  most  brilliant  exhibi- 
tion of  the  royal  magnificence,  he  had  a  seraglio  of  a 
thousand  women,  seven  hundred  of  them  being  of 
eminent  birth,  princes'  daughters,  as  they  are  called, 
retained,  perhaps,  as  honourable  hostages,  and  as  signs 
of  his  wide-spread  peaceable  alliances. 

Nor  was  the  personal  fame  of  the  sovereign  any 
way  unworthy  of  these  surroundings.  It  is  his  true 
and  undisputed  glory  to  have  contributed  as  largely 
to  the  forming  of  his  people's  mind  and  taste,  as  his 

*  See  Ecdesiastes  ii.  4-9. 


160  SOLOMON. 

father  had  done  to  their  character  and  national 
strength.  His  wisdom  seemed  to  the  popular  rev- 
erence to  justify  the  Divine  promise,  "  I  have  given 
thee  a  wise  and  understanding  heart,  so  that  there 
was  none  like  thee  before  thee,  neither  after  thee 
shall  any  arise  like  unto  thee ; "  and  it  is  added, 
"  God  gave  Solomon  wisdom  and  understanding  ex- 
ceeding much,  and  largeness  of  heart,  even  as  the 
sand  that  is  on  the  sea-shore  ;  and  Solomon's  wisdom 
excelled  the  wisdom  of  all  children  of  the  east  coun- 
try, and  all  the  wisdom  of  Egypt ;  for  he  was  wiser 
than  all  men,  and  his  fame  was  in  all  nations  round 
about.  And  he  spake  three  thousand  proverbs,  and 
his  songs  were  a  thousand  and  five.  And  he  spake 
of  trees,  from  the  cedar-tree  that  is  in  Lebanon  even 
unto  the  hyssop  that  springe th  out  of  the  wall :  he 
spake  also  of  beasts,  and  of  fowl,  and  of  creeping 
things,  and  of  fishes.  And  there  came  of  all  people 
to  hear  the  wisdom  of  Solomon,  from  all  kings  of 
the  earth  which  had  heard  of  his  wisdom."  * 

The  fond  and  exaggeratmg  style  of  this  report  tes- 
tifies to  the  powerful  impression  left  by  the  new  and 
elaborate  culture  of  the  reign  of  Solomon,  and  it  is 
justified  on  the  whole  by  what  appears  of  the  impulse 
which  he  personally  gave  to  the  intellectual  progress 
of  his  time.  Proverbial  philosophy  and  the  rudi- 
ments of  natural  history  —  both  of  moderate  rank  in 
the  scale  of  intellectual  achievement  —  are  the  de- 
partments characteristically  assigned  to  him.  The 
friendly  contests  of  wisdom,  in  which  tradition  re- 
ports him  to  have  surpassed  the  king  of  Tyre  and  the 

♦  1  Kings  iv.  29-34. 


WISDOM.  161 

queen  of  Sheba,  consisted  in  the  pleasant  play  of  wit, 
the  guessing  of  riddles,  and  the  neat  and  sagacious 
detecting  of  devices  made  to  baffle  his  ingenuity.* 
The  pointed  turns  of  expression,  the  happy  antithesis, 
the  rounding  of  a  sententious  phrase,  so  as  to  give 
the  eifect  of  wit,  are  qualities  m  which  such  an  age 
delights,  and  are  plentifully  shown  in  the  specimens 
of  his  proverbs  which  have  come  down  to  us,  remind- 
ing one  of  the  style  of  intellectual  play  at  the  court  of 
Charlemagne.  A  higher  degree  of  cultivation  and  a 
more  various  stimulus  of  the  intellect  distinguished 
this  golden  age  of  the  Hebrew  history ;  but  for  the 
more  strongly  defined  and  characteristic  qualities  of 
the  national  mind  we  must  go  to  an  earlier  or  later 
period,  —  to  the  odes  of  Deborah  and  David,  the  fer- 
vid religious  poetry  and  eloquence  of  Isaiah. 

The  same  cosmopolitan  temper  which  initiated  the 
commercial  enterprise,  and  made  both  the  "wisdom" 
and  magnificence  of  Solomon's  reign,  set  him  most 
widely  apart  from  the  general  type  of  Hebrew  char- 
acter. If  it  was  shown  in  splendid  works  that  ri- 
valled Egyptian  grandeur  and  Tyrian  wealth,  in  a 
temple  and  ritual  of  unsurpassed  gorgeousness,  in 
the  luxury  and  culture  of  a  period  of  peace,  it  was 
shown,  too,  in  acts  which  sundered  him  widely  from 
the  spirit  of  his  people,  cut  short  his  dynasty,  and 
divided  the  realm.  Religion  and  liberty  are  the 
two  main  sources  of  a  nation's  collective  life.  Both 
were  held  to  with  a  tenacious  and  jealous  fondness, 
through  all  periods  of  their  history,  by  the  people  of 

*  Of  these  the  most  noted  was  his  distinguishing  a  garland  of  real 
from  one  of  artificial  flowers,  by  admitting  a  swarm  of  honey-bees. 

K 


162  SOLOMON. 

Israel.  Both  were  alike  invaded  by  the  encroaching 
centralism  and  the  cosmopolite  spirit  of  the  king. 
The  close  of  his  reign  exhibits  the  humiliating  weak- 
ness of  his  decline  from  the  national  liberties  and 
faith,  and  the  popular  disaffection  resulting  from  his 
arbitrary  exercise  of  power. 

''  For  it  came  to  pass,"  says  the  siriiple  style  of  the 
narrative,  "  that  when  Solomon  was  old,  his  wives 
turned  away  his  heart  after  other  gods."  It  was 
politic  in  him  doubtless,  or  so  he  thought,  to  indulge 
the  religious  customs  of  his  foreign  women  of  the 
harem  ;  and  to  some  it  has  appeared  as  if  it  were 
only  a  prudent  toleration,  like  that  which  is  the  rule 
of  policy  in  an  intelligent  modern  state.  But  relig- 
ious culture  was  not  large  or  deep  enough  then,  and 
could  not  be  for  many  ages,  to  establish  toleration 
on  enlightened  principle.  The  superstitions  of  alien 
tribes  were  not  only  of  a  gross  and  revolting,  but  of 
an  aggressive  sort.  Some  of  them  were  licentious, 
and  some  of  them  were  cruel ;  most,  probably,  both. 
If  openly  practised,  they  would  certainly  corrupt  the 
popular  morals,  degrade  the  general  apprehension 
respecting  worship,  and  result  in  practical  disloyalty 
to  the  spirit  of  the  Hebrew  institutions.  Thus  they 
were  a  direct  invasion  of  the  national  character  and 
faith ;  and,  in  this  most  decisive  way,  virtual  trea- 
son against  the  state.  The  more  wonder  that  they 
should  have  been  due  to  the  very  man  who  so  em- 
phatically warned  the  Hebrew  youth  against  the  de- 
vices of  "  the  strange  woman  which  flattereth  with 
her  tongue." 

That  Solomon  himself  took  that  backward  step  in 


IDOLATRY.  163 

religious  culture,  and  became  a  worshipper  of  idols, 
is  not  positively  said.  That  he  shared  in  the  bloody 
and  horrid  rites  so  revolting  to  his  people's  better 
sense  seems  hardly  credible.  At  any  rate,  that  pop- 
ular sense  made  him  responsible  for  the  corruption 
which  presently  appeared  in  the  national  character 
and  faith ;  and  it  was  told  of  him,  that  he  "  went 
after  Ashtoreth,  the  goddess  of  the  Sidonians,  and 
after  Milcom  [Moloch] ,  the  abomination  of  the  Am- 
monites, and  built  an  high  place  for  Chemosh,  the 
abomination  of  Moab,  in  the  hill  that  was  before 
Jerusalem."  It  was  seen  how  false  was  that  worldly 
policy  of  his  which  would  purchase  foreign  favour  at 
the  price  of  his  own  people's  fidelity  ;  still  more,  how 
fatal  was  that  despotic  and  alien  custom  of  polygamy, 
so  abhorrent  to  the  best  sense  of  the  Hebrew  mind, 
though  the  constant  sign  and  type  of  Oriental  magnifi- 
cence. His  numerous  alliances,  purchased  at  such 
a  price,  might  gain  a  few  years  of  deceitful  peace, 
but  were  laying  by  the  seeds  of  mischief  for  his  suc- 
cessors. The  priesthood  might  be  loyal,  for  that  was 
a  royal  institution  and  dependency  ;  *  but  the  pro- 
phetic spirit,  which  was  but  the  intense  expression 
and  representative  of  the  popular  religious  spirit,  was 
roused  to  a  resentful  and  settled  hostility. 

And  the  grandeur  of  his  public  works  entailed  its 
heavy  cost.  For  twenty  years  together  he  had  em- 
ployed vast  companies  of  men  f  in  the  cedar-forests 
and  quarries  of  Lebanon,  to  procure  timber  and  lime- 

=*  See  2  Chron.  viii.  15. 

t  In  all  one  hundred  and  fifty  thousand,  with  three  thousand  six 
hundred  overseers,  according  to  2  Chron.  v.  13-18. 


164  SOLOMON. 

stone,  which  were  sent  round  in  floats  to  Joppa ;  and 
had  subsidized  the  king  of  Tyre  to  furnish  skilful 
artisans.  The  supply  of  food  for  all  these  labourers 
was  a  separate  and  very  heavy  tax.*  Costly  and 
unprofitable  enterprises  of  desert  traffic  were  a  drain 
upon  his  treasury,  to  say  nothing  of  the  burdensome 
charge  of  outposts  and  garrisons  in  unfriendly  dis- 
tricts. These  outlays  were  a  severe  strain  upon  the 
financial  strength  of  a  little  state  like  Israel.  We 
must  reckon,  besides,  the  enormous  and  wasteful 
establishment  of  royal  houses  and  gardens,  the  main- 
taining of  great  troops  of  idle  hands,  the  state  equip- 
age of  horses  and  chariots,!  and  the  lavish  magnifi- 
cence of  the  temple-worship.  All  had  to  be  paid  for 
by  the  taxing  of  a  scattered  and  agricultural  people, 
only  beginning  to  be  a  commercial  one.  Successful 
trade  might  replenish  the  royal  coffers,  or  a  lucky 
stroke  of  policy  or  conquest  might  defer  the  threaten- 
ing crisis  of  an  invasion  ;  but  there  was  a  steady 
drain  upon  the  energies  and  resources  of  the  state. 

The  expedients  which  Solomon  devised  to  defer  the 
evil  day  only  aggravated  the  mischiefs  of  his  mistaken 
policy.  Not  retrenchment,  but  heavier  taxation,  is 
the  usual  method  a  government  takes  in  dealing  with 

*  Compare  Herodotus,  II.  125. 

t  These  were  brought  at  great  cost  from  Egypt  (1  Kings  x.  29),  and 
were  among  the  standing  articles  of  trade,  to  supply  the  neighbouring 
regions.  "  The  feelings  of  the  pious,"  says  Newman,  "  boded  no  good 
to  Israel  from  this  new  force;  and  when,  in  the  next  reign,  Egypt 
proved  to  be  a  victorious  enemy,  and  the  cavalry  a  useless  arm  of 
defence,  it  probably  l)ecame  a  fixed  traditional  principle  with  the  pro- 
phetical body,  that  this  proud  force  was  outlandish,  heathenish,  and 
unbelieving." 


OPPRESSIONS.  165 

like  embarrassments.  A  corps  of  tax-gatherers  and 
purveyors,  changed  every  month  and  set  over  every 
district  of  the  land,  exacted  food  for  his  establishment 
and  revenue  for  his  wasted  treasury.  Following  the 
same  centralizing  policy  which  abolished  the  ancient 
Provinces  of  France,  he  merged  the  twelve  tribes  of 
Israel  in  twelve  Departments,  managed  by  as  many 
administrators  of  finance.*  Two  of  his  own  sons-in- 
law  were  in  this  ungracious  but  lucrative  ofiice  ;  and 
this  no  doubt  helped  to  widen  the  breach  between 
the  nation  at  large  and  the  house  of  David.  And 
for  one  other  expedient,  more  humiliating  and  base 
than  all  the  rest,  he  yielded  up  to  Hiram,  on  con- 
sideration of  a  large  advance  of  money,  including 
perhaps  payment  of  arrears,  a  border  district,  com- 
prising twenty  villages.!  This  vile  act  of  arbitrary 
power  shows  the  degrading  straits  to  which  the  bril- 
liant monarchy  of  Solomon  was  now  reduced.  How 
the  popular  feeling  resented  the  trade  and  sale  is 
shown  in  the  story  which  went  abroad,  that  the 
ancient  name  of  Cabul,  or  worthless,  expressed  the 
disgust  of  Hiram  when  he  came  to  view  his  bargain  ; 
and  the  later  account  J  would  even  have  it,  that 
Solomon  not  only  outwitted  his  ingenious  ally,  but 
quietly  reannexed  the  province,  proceeded  to  build 
up  the  villages,  and  "  caused  the  children  of  Israel 
to  dwell  there." 

The  two  strongest  points  of  the  national  character, 
or  prejudice,  were  thus  wantonly  affronted.  A  large 
portion  of  the  people  were  thoroughly  alienated  from 

^  See  1  Kings,  chap.  iv.  J  2  Chronicles  viii.  2. 

t  1  Kings  ix.  10-14. 


166  SOLOMON. 

the  reigning  family.  The  lustre  of  David's  name, 
and  the  early  glories  of  Solomon,  kept  back  any  out- 
break for  a  season  ;  but  symptoms  were  menacing 
even  during  his  lifetime.  What  was  worst  of  all,  the 
intense  religious  feeling  of  the  people  was  alarmed. 
Now  for  the  first  time  appear  prophets  of  eminent 
name  whose  influence  was  thrown  against  the  kingly 
power,  leagued  as  that  was  with  the  priesthood.  Saul 
had  defied  the  entire  religious  party  among  the  peo- 
ple, and  prophet  and  priest  combined  had  broken  his 
power  and  transferred  it  to  a  worthier  hand.  Now 
that  class  of  men  known  as  prophets  shared  the  popu- 
lar resentment.  A  large  party  were  apparently  dis- 
posed to  try  once  more  the  dangerous  experiment  of 
undermining  t\je  people's  loyalty,  and  bringing  about 
another  change  of  administration.  A  change  must 
soon  come,  at  any  rate ;  and  the  more  zealous  were 
disposed  to  hasten  it,  even  at  the  hazard  of  a  revolu- 
tion. 

Jeroboam  was  a  young  man  of  marked  energy 
and  activity,  one  of  the  directors  of  the  public  works 
at  Jerusalem.  Solomon  noted  his  valuable  qualities, 
and  promoted  him  to  be  governor  of  the  central  dis- 
trict, where  the  disaffection  was  greatest,  —  Ephraim 
resenting  the  loss  of  tribal  privilege,  and  nursing 
the  ancient  feud  against  the  rival  house  of  Judah. 
As  he  went  to  assume  his  new  charge,  the  prophet 
Ahijah  seized  the  occasion  to  prompt  the  young  man 
to  open  revolt.  He  snatched  his  mantle,  tore  it  in 
twelve  pieces,  and  gave  him  ten,  —  signifying  that, 
of  the  parted  kingdom,  ten  tribes  would  be  pledged 
to  follow  him.     Such  an  open  act  roused  Solomon's 


REHOBOAM.  167 

suspicion  ;  and,  to  avoid  a  premature  struggle,  Jero- 
boam fled  to  Egypt.  Shishak  (or  Sheshonk)  was  king 
there  now,  of  a  new  dynasty,  and  unfriendly  to  the 
monarchy  of  Jerusalem.  With  him  Jeroboam  re- 
mained in  security,  abiding  his  time. 

At  the  first  news  of  the  old  king's  death,  which 
happened  shortly  after,  he  hastened  back  to  his 
native  village  to  be  ready  for  coming  events.  The 
time  was  now  ripe  for  revolution.  It  was  only  pre- 
cipitated by  the  blind  obstinacy  and  folly  of  Reho- 
boam.  No  popular  congress  or  diet  made  a  regular 
part  of  the  government ;  only  at  rare  occasions  were 
the  people  able  to  give  voice,  shape,  and  force  to 
their  collective  will.  They  had  borne  their  burden 
the  more  patiently,  waiting  for  the  Convention  that 
should  ratify  the  claim  of  the  new  king.  They  met 
at  Shechem,  the  venerable  patriarchal  home  of  Is- 
rael, and  here  demanded  a  redress  of  grievances. 
Jeroboam  was  their  spokesman.  The  bitter  insolence 
of  Rehoboam's  answer  has  become  proverbial :  "  My 
little  finger  shall  be  thicker  than  my  father's  loins  ; 
my  father  made  your  yoke  heavy,  and  I  will  add  to 
your  yoke  ;  my  father  chastised  you  with  whips,  but 
I  will  chastise  you  with  scorpions."  Then  was  heard 
once  more  the  terrible  war-cry  that  had  rung  in 
David's  ear  at  the  dissension  of  the  tribes  after 
Absalom's  death :  "  What  portion  have  we  in  David  ? 
neither  have  we  inheritance  in  the  son  of  Jesse.  To 
your  tents,  0  Israel !  Now,  David,  guard  well  thy 
own  house ! " 

And  so,  by  a  steady  and  intelligible  train  of 
causes,  the  short-lived  monarchy  of  Israel  was  sun- 


168  SOLOMON. 

dered.  Henceforth,  the  unity  of  the  Hebrew  race 
is  only  ideal,  —  the  sharing  in  one  glorious  memory 
and  one  undying  hope.  The  larger  fragment  of  the 
nation  endured  a  troubled  existence  for  rather  more 
than  two  hundred  and  fifty  years,  till  it  was  swal- 
lowed up  by  the  grasping  Assyrian  realm,  and  the 
"  ten  lost  tribes "  disappeared  forever  from  human 
history.  The  little  kingdom  of  Judah,  adhering  to 
the  capital,  and  cherishing  the  ritual  and  culture 
identified  with  its  past  era  of  prosperity  and  glory, 
preserved  the  line  of  historical  descent  unbroken. 
It  continued  an  independent  state  for  about  four 
centuries;  during  which  it  gave  birth  to  the  later 
sublime  embodiments  of  Hebrew  thought  and  faith. 
With  invincible  tenacity,  even  after  their  conquest 
and  captivity,  the  Jews  kept  their  title  to  the  Holy 
Land  till  a  thousand  years  after  the  division ;  and 
to  tills  very  day  their  sons  are  looking  patiently  for 
the  restoring  of  the  kingdom  of  Israel  in  far  more 
than  its  ancient  glory. 

The  popular  mind,  though  it  could  not  trace  the 
causes,  felt  the  necessity,  that  led  to  this  trying  and 
fatal  event.  "  This  thing  is  fr.om  Jehovah,"  they 
said  ;  and  yielding  easily  to  the  counsel  of  She- 
maiah,  they  forebore  to  contend  against  one  another, 
and  went  home  with  a  heavy  heart,  to  live  as  a 
divided  and  alienated  people. 

From  the  course  things  had  taken,  this  unhappy 
division  was  clearly  a  necessity,  —  as  they  reverently 
called  it,  a  divine  necessity.  The  fault  of  Solomon 
was,  that  he  had  not  sagacity  to  foresee  or  wisdom 
to  provide   against  it.     The  elements  were  wanting 


CHARACTER.  169 

in  him  of  a  robust  and  manly  character,  of  an  edu- 
cated will.  His  intellectual  eminence  was  only  that 
which  comes  from  carrying  out,  in  larger  develop- 
ment and  more  elaborate  culture,  the  elements  of 
thought  common  to  all  average  minds.  His  knowl- 
edge was  extensive,  his  range  of  observation  great ; 
but,  save  in  the  plain  ethics  of  e very-day  life,  he 
never  ascended  above  a  low  or  medium  plane  of 
tliought.  There  was  no  vigour  of  the  higher  faculty 
in  him,  no  practical  statesmanship,  no  moral  earnest- 
ness, no  intellectual  grasp.  In  the  main  tendency 
of  his  mind  he  only  drifted  with  the  common  tide, 
and  his  wisdom  was  all  the  more  admired  that  it 
was  wisdom  which  all  could  comprehend.  In  a 
position  eminently  demanding  the  exercise  of  the 
loftier  and  more  generous  faculties,  he  showed  only 
a  mean  and  ordinary  soul. 

It  would  seem  to  have  required  no  consummate 
and  superhuman  wisdom  to  meet  the  problem  of 
his  time  more  worthily,  —  at  least  to  avoid  his  fatal 
error.  He  had  mental  activity,  but  on  a  low  plane  ; 
political  talent,  but  rather  of  a  subtile  than  compre- 
hensive sort ;  ambition  of  splendour  and  national 
greatness,  but  no  large  popular  sympathies.  His 
was  a  short-sighted  policy,  a  wilful,  petulant,  des- 
potic rule.  Unless  he  had  the  deliberate  intention 
to  absorb  and  crush  the  liberties  of  his  people  in  one 
inexorable,  absolute,  central  rule,  and  so  was  a  traitor 
to  the  genius  and  destinies  of  the  nation,  and  only 
failed  for  want  of  power  in  a  design  as  profligate  as 
it  was  able,  —  unless  we  save  his  intellect  at  the 
expense  of  his  character,  or  his  subtle  policy  at  the 


170  SOLOMON. 

expense  of  both,  —  we  must  regard  him  as  weak  and 
incapable  at  bottom,  a  man  unfit  for  his  station  or 
his  trust. 

In  so  judging  him,  we  should  only  take  from  his 
name  its  false  glitter,  and  rate  Solomon  among  ordi- 
nary men.  It  is  only  that  he  had  not  that  rare 
strength  of  will,  that  inspired  loftiness  of  motive, 
which  would  break  through  the  network  of  circum- 
stance. It  is  only  that  he  did  not  reach  the  moral 
elevation,  where  his  naturally  active  and  fertile  mind 
might  work  by  the  guiding  of  that  God  whom  his  fa- 
thers knew  better  than  he.  It  is  not  to  condemn  him 
personally  to  say  that  that  critical  time  found  not 
its  providential  man  in  him.  A  Solon  would  have 
been  glorious  precisely  where  Solomon  was  most 
weak.  He  did  not  govern,  but  yielded  to  the  baser 
tendencies  of  his  age.  He  followed  to  the  uttermost 
the  path  that  happened  to  be  open  to  him.  He 
developed  fully  the  style  of  culture  that  humoured 
the  temper  of  the  time.  He  magnified  the  glory 
of  the  kingdom  at  the  expense  of  its  liberty  and 
quiet.  His  rule  was  fast  tending  to  an  unmitigated 
and  oppressive  absolutism ;  and  the  nation  was  only 
saved  from  that  at  the  cost  of  its  unity,  its  outward 
vigour,  and  ultimately  its  existence. 


YI.    THE    KINGS. 

THE  entire  duration  of  the  Hebrew  monarchy  was 
not  far  from  five  hundred  years.*  Of  this  period 
a  century  is  occupied  with  the  reign  of  the  first  three 
kings,  down  to  the  division  of  the  kingdom.  The  re- 
mainder consists  of  three  unequal  periods :  first,  of 
rather  more  than  a  century  (B.  C.  985-883),  to  the 
bloody  revolution  of  Jehu,  which  shattered  both  the 
royal  houses,  and  led  to  a  complete  reconstruction 
of  the  monarchy ;  second,  of  a  hundred  and  sixty- 
four  years  (B.  C.  883-719),  to  the  destruction  of 
Samaria  and  the  dispersion  of  the  ten  tribes ;  third, 
of  about  a  hundred  and  thirty  years  (B.  C.  719-586), 
to  the  capture  of  Jerusalem  and  the  carrying  away 
into  Babylon.  The  first  of  these  periods  is  marked  by 
hostilities  between  Israel  and  Judah,  merged  finally 
in  their  alliance  against  Damascus  ;  the  second,  by 
the  struggles  against  Syria,  followed  by  the  conquer- 
ing advance  of  the  Assyrians  ;  the  third  by  violent 
religious  contentions  in  the  state  of  Judah,  until  it 
was  finally  overthrown  by  the  Chaldaean  conquest. 
The  extinction  of  Hebrew  nationality  is  just  ten 
years  later  than  the  great  constitutional  reform  of 

*  This  is  the  reckoning  of  Ewald,  from  which  Newman  deducts  thirty 
years,  placing  Solomon's  death  in  955. 


172  THE  KINGS. 

Solon,  —  the  first  well  marked  and  important  event 
of  the  political  history  of  Greece  (B.  C.  596). 

I.  The  revolt  of  the  ten  tribes  was  a  protest  of  the 
old  Hebrew  spirit  against  the  system  of  religious 
and  political  centralization,  which  was  already  carried 
to  such  a  length  by  Solomon.  The  blow  was  struck 
at  the  instigation  of  the  prophets,  representatives  of 
the  popular  instinct  of  local  freedom  and  religious 
independence.  On  the  one  hand,  a  deep-rooted 
jealousy  had  grown  up  against  the  increasing  power 
and  despotic  temper  of  the  monarchy,  which  in  so 
many  respects  shocked  the  habits  and  moral  feeling 
of  the  people  ;  and,  on  the  other  hand,  the  organized 
priesthood  of  Jerusalem  roused  the  antipathy  of  those 
in  whom  the  fire  of  the  antique  faith  burned  most 
vehemently.  The  people  had  been  wonted  from  of 
old  to  the  free  worship  of  Jehovah  on  hill-tops  and 
in  the  open  air.  Reasons  of  permanence,  security, 
and  uniformity  might  be  urged  in  favour  of  the  tem- 
ple ritual,  and  the  splendid  establishment  of  the  cap- 
ital ;  but  it  was  hard  to  forego  the  immemorial  rights 
and  tribal  privileges  of  the  rural  sanctuaries ;  and 
even  in  Judah  it  was  not  till  the  great  reformation 
achieved  by  Hezekiah  that  the  "  high  places  "  were 
removed,  and  the  worship  of  the  brazen  serpent  was 
abolished.*  Appealing  to  this  confirmed  popular 
sentiment,  Jeroboam  established  at  once  two  district 
sanctuaries,  at  Dan  and  Bethel,  with  symbolic  images 
of  Egyptian  device,  which  the  prophets  called  in 
derision  his  golden  calves  ;  and  when  this  irregu- 
lar local  worship  had  degenerated,  and  aUied  itself 

*  2  Kings  xviii.  4. 


ISRAEL.  173 

with  corrupt  foreign  superstitions,  his  title  was  known 
as  by  a  proverb  among  the  more  religious  of  the 
nation,  as  "  the  son  of  Nebat,  who  made  Israel  to 
sin." 

The  protest  against  the  centralizing  and  despotic 
policy  of  the  monarchy  seemed  at  first  likely  to  be 
completely  successful.  It  enlisted  the  popular  senti- 
ment, for  it  promised  a  return  to  the  spirit  of  the 
elder  Hebrew  institutions,  —  the  "  good  old  times  " 
of  the  Lawgiver  and  Judges.  The  deep-seated  local 
feeling  and  jealous  independence  by  which  the  race 
had  been  so  strongly  marked  from  the  first  seemed 
in  this  revolt  to  fortify  itself  anew.  The  first  patri- 
archal home  in  Canaan,  the  seat  of  Samuel's  pro- 
phetic and  of  Saul's  regal  power,  the  abode  of  Joshua, 
the  great  conqueror,  and  of  Gideon,  the  champion 
of  the  nation's  independence,  and  the  track  of  the 
mythic  migration  under  Jacob,  the  Prince  of  God,  — 
all  were  included  in  the  region  that  now  threw  off"  the 
hated  supremacy  of  Judah.  And  so  it  claimed  the 
proud  patriarchal  name  of  Israel,  —  changed  (some- 
times in  scorn,  sometimes  in  tenderness)  to  Ephraim, 
when  the  frontier  tribes  were  pressed  by  invaders, 
and  not  much  more  than  that  citadel  of  power  re- 
mained. It  held  sway  over  most  of  the  conquests 
that  made  up  the  empire  of  David  and  Solomon,  — 
except  the  great  tributary,  Damascus,  which  had 
revolted  successfully  even  in  Solomon's  time.  The 
upper  Philistine  coast,  the  country  east  of  Jordan,  as 
far  south  as  Moab  and  the  Dead  Sea,  even  Bethel  and 
Jericho,  that  bordered  so  closely  on  the  capital,  were 
kept  in  the  hands  of  this  more   powerful   division. 


174  THE  KINGS. 

And  for  many  years  it  seemed  no  hopeless  ambition 
to  recover  the  strongholds  of  Judah,  and  extend  the 
proud  name  of  Israel  over  the  whole  territory  claimed 
as  the  heritage  of  the  race. 

Meanwhile  the  smaller  kingdom  held  itself  on  the 
defensive.  The  struggle  to  retain  its  hold  upon 
the  revolted  district  was  at  once  given  up  as  hope- 
less, and  Judah  began  to  gather  slowly  the  elements 
of  its  isolated  strength.  Its  first  rallying  force  was 
seen  in  the  thronging  back  to  Jerusalem  of  the  levit- 
ical  body,*  including,  doubtless,  a  large  portion  of 
the  more  serious-minded  and  better-cultured  of  the 
nation,  who  were  thoroughly  disgusted  with  the  law- 
less and  retrograde  temper  shown  in  "  the  prov- 
inces." And  then  were  seen  the  immense  advan- 
tages of  a  firm  and  compacted  organization.  Jeru- 
salem had  already  become  the  peculiar  home  of  na- 
tional memories  and  worship.  The  house  of  David 
liad  in  its  favour  the  habitual  loyalty  of  near  a 
century  of  successful  and  imposing  rule.  By  far 
the  greatest  part  of  the  intellectual  culture,  as  well 
as  religious  prestige,  was  gathered  about  the  court 
and  capital.  Here  was  a  firm  centre  and  a  vigorous 
root  of  the  national  vitality.  The  region  itself  is 
one  less  tempting  to  the  cupidity  of  an  invader. 
While,  accordingly,  the  larger  kingdom  was  almost 
from  the  first  distracted  by  the  most  violent  feuds  ; 
while  three  royal  houses  were  cut  ofi*  in  the  second 
generation,  and  of  the  longest  enduring  every  indi- 
vidual perished  by  a  violent  death ;  while  the  rehg- 
ious  party,  headed  by  Elijah  and  Elisha,  was  in  almost 

*  2  Chronicles  xi.  14. 


JUDAH  AND  ISRAEL.  175 

perpetual  contention  with  the  kings,  and  was  at  length 
bloodily  extinguished, — in  Judah,  on  the  other  hand, 
the  sanctuary  became  the  rallying-point  of  loyalty  and 
faith  ;  those  institutions  were  matured  whose  power- 
ful influence  still  outlives  the  downfall  of  the  nation ; 
the  larger  part  of  the  Hebrew  Scriptures  were  com- 
posed, constituting  so  marked  an  element  in  the 
literature  of  the  world  ;  and  the  Hebrew  religious 
culture  culminated  in  the  splendid  series  of  the 
Prophets. 

It  was  not  long  before  the  causes  that  resulted  in 
so  striking  a  contrast  were  seen  to  be  at  work.  The 
religious  party  that  had  instigated  the  revolt  flattered 
itself,  doubtless,  with  the  prospect  of  being  para- 
mount in  the  new  state ;  but  it  quickly  appeared  that 
it  could  never  be  anything  more  than  a  party,  and 
generally  one  in  opposition  to  the  royal  power.  The 
fortune  of  the  kingdom  showed  a  return  to  "  what 
was  worst  in  the  policy  of  Saul,  with  no  delivering 
David."  An  able  man  like  Jeroboam,  whose  notions 
of  state  policy  and  state  religion  were  got  from  his 
experiences  under  Solomon  and  at  the  Egyptian 
court,  was  not  likely  to  put  himself  in  the  hands  of 
what  he  would  regard  as  a  fanatical  sect,  however 
indebted  to  it  for  the  first  germ  of  his  power.  It  was 
an  unscrupulous  secular  ambition  that  guided  him, 
not  any  serious  design  of  restoring  the  fond  ideal  of 
a  theocracy.  He  shared  the  passion  for  royal  splen- 
dour that  had  built  the  edifices  of  Jerusalem  and 
Memphis,  and  for  that  despotic  absolutism  which 
was  the  only  type  he  knew  of  monarchy.  For  rea- 
sons  of  policy,  he   transferred  his   capital  first  to 


176  THE  KINGS. 

Peniel,  beyond  the  Jordan,  and  then  to  Tirzah,  whose 
beauty  became  proverbial  as  a  rival  to  Jerusalem.* 
Ahab's  ivory  palace  at  Jezreel  and  the  splendid  hill- 
town  of  Samaria  were  later  monuments  of  that  taste 
for  regal  magnificence  which  was  manifest  from  the 
very  beginning  of  the  Israelite  monarchy. 

An  aggressive  and  military  policy,  too,  marked  the 
first  years  of  the  sundered  state.  An  angry  jealousy 
prevailed  between  Israel  and  Judah,  so  that  the  story 
of  two  or  three  of  the  early  reigns  is  of  continual 
war  between  them.f  Shishak,  king  of  Egypt,  as 
ally  of  Jeroboam,  menaced  Jerusalem  with  a  formid- 
able invasion,  and  carried  away,  for  spoil  or  tribute, 
"  all "  the  magnificent  gold  furnishing  of  both  tem- 
ple and  palace,  which  had  to  be  replaced  by  brass. 
Baasha  —  who  got  the  power  by  the  massacre  of  all 
Jeroboam's  family  two  years  after  his  death  —  fol- 
lowed still  more  vigorously  this  hostile  policy.  He 
seized  the  frontier  town  of  Ramah,  and  made  it  a 
military  post  to  harass  the  traders  or  travellers  of 
Judah,  till  Asa,  the  grandson  of  Rehoboam,  took 
the  richest  remaining  treasures  of  the  temple  and 
capital  to  muster  the  Syrian  forces  from  Damascus, 
—  seducing  them  from  their  alliance  with  Baasha,  — 
and  so  forced  him  to  quit  the  fortress,  which  was 
instantly  demolished.  Thus  the  first  three  reigns  on 
either  side  exhibit  the  two  kingdoms  as  bitter  and 
jealous  rivals,  willing  even  to  employ  alien  forces  for 
each  other's  ruin.     This  desperate  and  fatal  course 

♦  See  Canticles  vi.  4. 

t  Jeroboam  is  said  (2  Chronicles  xiii.  17)  to  have  been  defeated  with 
the  loss  of  500,000  in  a  single  battle. 


PEOPHETS   OF  ISKAEL.  177 

was  not  discontinued  till  Asa's  son,  Jehosliaphat,  saw 
how  much  more  the  Syrian  power  was  to  be  dreaded ; 
and  then,  too  late,  by  his  disastrous  league  with  Ahab, 
he  endeavoured  to  make  good  the  irretrievable  erroi^ 
of  the  past. 

The  secular  and  vindictive  temper  shown  by  the 
monarchs  of  the  northern  kingdom  could  not  but 
bring  bitter  disappointment  and  exasperation  to  the 
party  that  had  prompted  the  revolution.  It  is  re- 
lated *  how  a  prophet  was  divinely  sent  from  Judah, 
with  a  message  of  doom  to  the  apostate  house  of  Jer- 
oboam,—  a  doom  frightfully  accomplished  in  Baa- 
sha's  massacre  of  every  one  who  shared  his  blood ;  a 
message  of  such  fearful  moment,  that  the  returning 
prophet  was  torn  in  pieces  by  a  lion  for  staying  so 
much  as  to  taste  of  food.  And  Ahijah,  the  first  coun- 
seller  of  the  great  revolt,  bitterly  deploring  in  old  age 
and  blindness  the  recreancy  of  the  man  he  had  select- 
ed as  champion  of  the  ancient  faith,  denounced  a 
similar  fatal  message,  when  the  wife  of  Jeroboam 
came  to  consult  him  concerning  the  sickness  of  her 
child.  The  religious  party  in  Israel  was  becoming 
deeply  alienated  from  the  sovereign  power ;  and  a 
struggle  was  impending,  in  which  that  party,  after 
displaying  every  extremity  of  heroism  in  endurance, 
and  of  even  fierce  and  desperate  resource  in  retalia- 
tion, was  finally  absorbed  or  suppressed,  and  Israel 
was  left,  to  all  intents  and  purposes,  a  heathen  king- 
dom till  its  fall. 

The  crisis  of  this  religious  struggle  was  brought  on 
by  the  tyrannical  and  persecuting  temper  of  the  third 

*  1  Kings,  chap.  xiii. 

8*  L 


178  THE  KINGS. 

reigning  family,  that  of  Omri.  The  son  of  Baasha 
was  killed  at  a  drunken  revel  by  Zimri,  a  court 
officer,  who,  after  a  week's  play  at  despotism,  burned 
^the  palace  in  despair  over  his  own  head.  After  a 
few  years'  struggle  with  Tibni,  (who  perhaps  held  the 
territory  east  of  Jordan,)  Omri  had  become  both 
avenger  and  successor  of  the  fallen  house.  The 
Philistines  had  been  troublesome  on  one  side,  and 
the  realm  distracted  on  the  other  by  civil  feuds ;  and 
to  fortify  himself,  he  renewed  the  old  alliance  with 
the  king  of  Tyre,  and  took  Jezebel,  the  spirited  and 
beautiful  Phoenician  princess,  as  wife  to  his  son 
Ahab. 

Ahab  was  a  weak-minded,  kind-tempered,  well- 
meaning  man,  ruled  completely  by  the  vindictive  and 
imperious  temper  of  his  wife.  She  made  it  her  busi- 
ness to  defy,  insult,  and  if  possible  suppress  the  na- 
tional religious  spirit  of  the  people.  Her  father  Eth- 
baal  had  been  a  priest,  which  may  partly  account 
for  the  fervours  of  her  religious  rage.  To  what 
length  she  carried  her  persecution  we  do  not  know, 
nor  what  especial  provocation  may  have  induced  it ; 
only,  that  out  of  what  was  meant  as  an  entire  mas- 
sacre of  the  body  of  prophets,  Obadiah,  a  court 
officer,  hid  a  hundred,  at  the  hazard  of  his  life,  in  two 
caves  ;  and  that  when  Elijah  fled  to  Sinai,  he  thought 
himself  the  only  survivor  of  the  slaughter.  In  rivalry 
of  the  great  sanctuary  of  the  Hebrew  worship,  she 
built  a  gorgeous  temple  to  the  sun-god  Baal,  and  had 
it  attended  by  four  hundred  and  fifty  priests.  It  was 
apparently  to  insult  and  override  in  every  way  the 
popular  feeling  she  despised,  that  she  violated  the 


ELIJAH.  179 

sacred  common  law  of  the  realm ;  causing  Naboth, 
whose  vineyard  Ahab  would  annex  to  the  royal  gar- 
dens, to  be  stoned  on  a  got-up  charge  of  treason,  and 
so  confiscating  the  coveted  estate. 

Only  one  man  was  bold  enough  to  confront  stead- 
ily this  storm  of  tyranny,  —  a  man  whose  real  influ- 
ence and  power  are  imperfectly  represented  in  the 
splendid  series  of  acts  ascribed  to  him.  The  remark- 
able episode  in  the  meagre  annals  of  the  kingdom 
which  constitutes  the  personal  history  of  Elijah  and 
his  successor  affords  the  most  valuable  picture  of  the 
manners  and  popular  feeling  of  the  period.  It  is 
almost  the  only  glimpse  we  have  of  the  body  of  men 
known  as  the  "  prophets  "  of  the  northern  kingdom  ; 
and,  however  perplexing  in  its  details,  it  must  be 
accepted  as  their  historical  legacy.  It  presents 
a  combination,  almost  unique,  of  miraculous  acts 
and  bold  personal  adventure  ;  and  the  period  it  de- 
scribes may  weU  be  called  the  heroic  age  of  Hebrew 
prophecy. 

Elijah  is  the  principal  person  of  this  religious  epic, 
—  a  man  who,  for  the  boldness  and  splendour  of  his 
acts,  his  agency  in  restoring  the  worship  of  Jehovah, 
and  the  mystery  of  his  final  disappearance,  has  been 
placed  even  on  the  same  high  eminence  with  Moses, 
unapproachable  by  any  other.  In  a  time  of  drought 
and  famine,  which  he  predicts,  ravens  feed  him  by  a 
solitary  brook.  When  that  dries  up,  he  is  supported 
by  the  unspent  meal  of  a  poor  widow  of  Zarephath, 
whose  dead  child  he  brings  to  life.  Demanding  an 
interview  with  the  king,  and  a  public  controversy 
with  the  priests  of  Baal,  he  convicts  them  by  the 


180  THE   KINGS. 

stupendoxis  miracle  of  the  kindling  of  the  sacrifice 
on  Mount  Carmel ;  and  the  false  priests  are  slaugh- 
tered by  the  popular  vengeance,  in  retaliation  for  the 
massacre  of  Jehovah's  people.  While  the  rain-storm 
is  gathering  which  puts  a  period  to  the  long  distress, 
he  runs  before  the  king's  chariot  all  the  way  to  the 
capital ;  then,  at  the  threats  of  Jezebel,  we  find  him 
as  suddenly  beyond  the  southern  frontier  of  Judah. 
Strengthened  by  miraculous  food,  he  fasts  forty  days 
in  the  bleak  peninsula  of  Sinai ;  and  then  comes  that 
noble  scene,  in  which  God  reveals  himself,  not  in  the 
rushing  wind,  or  earthquake,  or  fire,  but  in  the  "still 
small  voice."  He  is  sought  after  Ahab's  death  by 
his  son  Ahaziah,  who  was  crushed  fatally  by  a  fall 
from  the  palace  window,  that  his  prophetic  skill  may 
tell  the  chances  of  life  and  death ;  and  twice  a  com- 
pany of  fifty  men,  with  their  commander,  perish  by 
fire  out  of  heaven,  to  insure  his  inviolability.  Fi- 
nally, when  the  season  of  his  labour  is  over,  he  is 
taken  up  in  a  fiery  chariot,  in  full  sight  of  Elisha, 
upon  whom  his  mantle  falls  as  his  successor.* 

The  acts  ascribed  to  Elisha  are  a  series  somewhat 
similar,  as  if  a  certain  parallelism  had  been  observed 
in  them.  The  chief  difference  is,  that  they  denote  a 
career  less  wild  and  lonely,  but  of  far  greater  political 
importance,  and  greater  variety  of  human  interest. 
Several  of  Elisha' s  miracles  are  wrought  in  the  ser- 
vice of  a  community  or  school  of  younger  prophets. 
He  has  a  permanent  home  in  the  dwelling  of  the 

*  The  only  allusion  to  him  in  Chronicles  is  the  mention  of  a  letter 
sent  to  the  kinj;  of  Judah,  after  the  supposed  time  of  his  ascension. 
(2  Chron.  xxi.  12.) 


ELISHA.  181 

wealthy  Shunamite.  He  accompanies  the  army  of 
Judah  in  an  attack  upon  the  Moabites,  and  miracu- 
lously obtains  water  in  the  parched  soil  of  the  desert 
for  the  distressed  camp.  Twice  his  foresight  was  the 
means  of  saving  Israel  from  the  Syrians,  and  it  was 
by  his  agency  their  armies  were  alarmed  from  the 
siege  of  Samaria.  For  fifty  years  he  was  held  in 
singular  honour  by  nearly  every  king  who  reigned 
in  Israel.  On  his  death-bed  Jehoash  hailed  him  "  the 
chariot  and  horseman  of  Israel,"  in  testimony  of  his 
powerful  championship  ;  and  long  after  his  death  his 
bones  restored  to  life  a  dead  body  that  chanced  to  be 
placed  in  contact  with  tliem.  The  esteem  in  which 
he  was  held  reached  as  far  as  Damascus,  where  we 
find  him,  on  a  friendly  visit,  predicting  the  king's 
decease  and  the  coming  calamities  of  his  country ; 
and  among  his  miracles  is  recorded  the  healing  of 
Naaman,  a  Syrian  officer,  of  his  leprosy. 

But  the  political  agency  of  Elisha  was  most  decisive 
in  this,  —  that  he  brought  about  that  bloody  revolu- 
tion in  which  Jehu  extinguished  the  idolatrous  fam- 
ily of  Omri,  and  closed  the  first  period  of  the  Israelite 
monarchy. 

The  reign  of  Ahab  had  been  weak  and  ineffectual. 
State  power  being  utterly  divorced  from  popular 
faith  or  feeling,  the  kingdom  appears  to  have  been 
in  a  perpetual  decline.  The  close  of  the  first  century 
of  the  monarchy  was  marked  by  defeat  and  shame. 
Damascus,  whose  power  had  been  courted  by  each 
of  the  kingdoms  in  their  short-sighted  rivalry,  was 
beginning  now  to  overshadow  both.  Samaria  itself 
had  been  beleaguered  and  reduced  to  the  last  straits 


182  THE  KINGS. 

by  famine ;  and  two  women  wrangled  about  the 
keeping  of  a  horrid  agreement,  to  kill  and  share  the 
bodies  of  their  babes  for  food.  The  territory  east  of 
Jordan  was  hard  pressed  by  Syria.  To  defend  it, 
Jehosliaphat,  whose  wise  and  vigorous  rule  had  re- 
stored the  prosperity  of  Judah,*  formed  a  close  alli- 
ance with  Ahab ;  and  to  screen  him  from  personal 
danger  had  in  the  last  and  fatal  battle  put  on  his 
armour,  while  Ahab  was  appar ailed  as  a  private 
soldier.  But  Micaiah's  bold  prophecy  of  disaster, 
spoken  in  a  gathering  of  four  hundred  prophets  who 
all  predicted  that  the  alliance  would  be  triumphant,! 
proved  true.  Ahab  was  killed  by  a  chance  arrow- 
shot,  and  his  body  borne  away  by  the  retreating 
force.  His  elder  son  Ahaziah  die(l  of  his  fall  (before 
alluded  to),  and  Jehoram  was  badly  wounded  in  the 
same  disastrous  war  in  which  his  father  perished. 
Then  Elisha,  despairing  of  the  kingdom  unless  some 
desperate  blow  were  struck  against  the  apostate  and 
ill-fated  house,  sent  by  a  swift  messenger  and  anoint- 
ed Jehu,  who  was  now  commander  of  the  army,  com- 
missioning him  to  take  vengeance  on  those  that  had 
dealt  so  cruelly  with  the  faitliful. 

Jehu  was  a  hasty,  crafty,  unscrupulous  man  ;  one 
not  to  hesitate  in  fulfilling  such  a  commission,  even 
to  the  horror  of  those  who  had  given  it  to  his  hands, 
—  if,  indeed,  the  exasperated  temper  of  the  perse- 
cuted party  would  shrink  at  any  degree  of  vengeance. 
He  struck  liis  blow  without  delay.  By  swift  relays 
of  horses  he   drove   to   the   palace  at  Jezreel,  met 

♦  See  2  Chron.,  chap.  xvii. 

t  See  the  remarkable  narrative  in  1  Kings,  chap.  xxii. 


JEHU.  —  HAZAEL.  183 

Jelioram  in  Naboth's  vineyard,  struck  him  with  a 
javelin  through  the  back  as  he  turned  to  fly ;  then 
gratuitously  slew  the  king  of  Judah,  Ahaziah,  grand- 
son of  Jehoshaphat,  who  happened  to  be  with  him. 
He  next  ordered  Jezebel  to  be  flung  out  of  the  palace- 
window,  and  trampled  her  under  his  horses'  feet ;  then 
directed  the  massacre  of  seventy  of  Ahab's  kindred, 
and  of  forty-two  who  were  coming  unsuspiciously 
from  Judah ;  and  ended  by  enticing  a  great  crowd 
of  Baal-worshippers  to  the  temple,  under  pretence  of 
solemn  sacrifice,  and  slaughtering  them  all.  This 
frightful  series  of  massacres  stifled  for  the  present 
the  alien  worship,  and  introduced  a  new  period  of 
seeming,  though  transient,  vigour.  But  the  nation 
could  not  easily  recover  from  the  guilt  and  terror 
of  such  a  season ;  and  "  in  those  days,"  says  the  an- 
nalist, "  Jehovah  began  to  cut  Israel  short."  Hazael 
of  Damascus,  whose  murder-purchased  rule  Elisha  is 
related  to  have  foretold  to  him,  fulfilled  the  predic- 
tion of  cruelly  ravaging  tlT.e  land.  The  people  in 
their  distress  were  driven  from  their  old  pastoral 
courses,  and  no  longer  "  dwelt  in  tents  as  before- 
time  ; "  while  their  military  equipment  was  beaten 
to  pieces  and  made  "  like  the  dust  by  threshing." 
From  Israel  were  wrested  Gilead  and  Bashan,  or 
almost  all  that  lay  eastward  of  the  Jordan ;  and 
Hazael  was  only  bought  oif  from  Jerusalem  by  gifts. 
It  was  not  till  half  a  century  later  that  Samaria  re- 
covered for  a  while  the  external  security  it  had  lost. 

II.  Thus  the  civil  and  religious  forces  of  the  north- 
ern kingdom  had  nearly  annihilated  each  other  in 
their  long  struggle.     Its  crisis,  just  related,  reacted 


184  THE  KINGS. 

on  the  sister  realm,  in  a  revolution,  almost  as  violent, 
but  far  less  disastrous  in  its  results.  Athaliah,  the 
daughter  of  Jezebel  and  queen-mother  at  Jerusalem, 
revenged  herself  on  the  party  of  Jehovah  —  treat- 
ing them  as  authors  of  the  massacre  in  which  her 
kindred  had  perished  —  by  putting  to  death  the 
whole  royal  family,  and  establishing  a  dynasty  of 
Baal-worshippers,  which  lasted  six  years.  But  in  a 
series  of  politic  and  able  reigns,  especially  those  of 
Asa  and  his  son  Jehoshaphat,*  the  priesthood  had 
become  greatly  confirmed  in  its  power,  and  was  pre- 
pared to  make  its  own  terms  with  royalty.f  Jelioi- 
ada,  in  the  name  of  the  child  Joash,  who  had  been 
secreted  and  saved  from  the  massacre  by  an  adroit 
and  bold  conspiracy,  restored  the  house  of  David. 

For  about  twenty  years  there  was  now  a  peaceful 
regency  of  priests.  It  was  no  season  to  attempt  any 
hazardous  stroke  of  policy,  or  to  challenge  the  strength 
of  parties  that  might  be  hostile  to  the  ruling  power. 
Peace  must  be  had  at  any  cost.  The  position  and 
temper  of  the  priestly  regency  would  secure  it  at 
home  ;  and  in  such  a  season  of  weakness  it  was  pur- 
chased abroad  by  large  gifts,  to  stay  the  threatened 
incursion  of  the  Syrians.  The  young  king,  under 
his  foster-father's  guidance,  went  easily  and  willingly 
along  in  the  lines  of  the  priestly  policy.  It  was  not 
till  after  Jehoiada's  death,  and  he  began  to  doubt  the 

♦  See  in  Chronicles  the  extraordinary  expansions  of  the  simple  nar- 
rative of  the  Kings  as  to  these  two  reigns.  (2  Chron.  chaps,  xv.-xvii.) 
Asa  routs  an  Ethiopian  force  of  a  million  men  and  three  hundred  char- 
iots, while  Jehoshaphat  keeps  a  standing  ai-my  of  1,260,000. 

t  The  mention  of  the  Sabbath  now  first  occurs  in  the  historical 
books.     (2  Kings  xi.  5,  7.) 


PROPHETS   OF  JUDAH.  —  JOEL.  185 

priests'  good  faith  in  appropriating  the  pious  contri- 
butions for  the  repairs  of  the  temple,  that  he  showed 
any  disposition  to  take  the  reins  of  government  him- 
self. This  led  to  another  feud  of  royalty  and  priest- 
hood ;  to  accusations  of  the  king's  apostasy ;  and 
even  to  the  charge  *  that  his  own  cousin  Zechariah 
perished  by  his  order,  ''  between  the  temple  and  the 
altar."  Joash  himself  at  last  fell  a  victim  to  the  dis- 
affection growing  out  of  these  party  strifes,  being  as- 
sassinated by  his  own  servants.  The  twenty  years' 
rash  and  unfortunate  reign  of  Amaziah  f  followed 
before  the  kingdom  regained  its  full  prosperity  and 
strength  under  Uzziah. 

Meanwhile,  the  work  of  religious  and  intellectual 
cultivation  had  found  a  favouring  impulse  in  the 
regency  of  priests.  To  that  period  is  generally  re- 
ferred the  beginning  of  written  prophecy,  —  a  pro- 
duct of  the  Hebrew  mind  widely  different  from  the 
extemporized  political  or  religious  agencies  known 
by  that  name  in  the  earlier  age  of  Israel.  A  severe 
plague  of  locusts  had  ravaged  the  land  in  a  series  of 
devastations,  coinciding  with  the  menaces  or  injuries 
which  Judah  was  enduring  from  neighbouring  powers* 
This  called  forth  the  brief  but  noble  composition  of 
Joel,  which  announces  the  moral  of  that  scourge  in 
•a  powerful  appeal  to  the  popular  conscience,  —  the 
demand  of  sacrificial  penance,  the  lofty  promise  of 
the  outpouring  of  God's  spirit  for  the  final  deliver- 
ance of  Judah,  and  the  grateful  assurance  of  revenge. 

*  2  Chron.  xxiv.  20-22. 

t  In  which  three  thousand  cities  of  Judah  are  said  (2  Chron.  xxv.  14) 
to  have  been  smitten  by  the  Israelites. 


186  THE  KINGS. 

Tyre,  which  had  kidnapped  their  children  for  sale 
in  Greece,*  should  be  enslaved  to  Judah  ;  while 
Egypt  and  Edom  should  become  a  desolation. 

From  this  time  forth,  the  changing  fortunes  of  the 
time  are  most  faithfully  reflected  in  the  prophetical 
writings.  Uzziah's  long  reign,  of  more  than  fifty 
years,  was  in  the  main  a  season  of  prosperity  and 
peace.  The  frontier  was  secured  at  the  south,  and 
the  fortifications  of  the  capital  were  kept  in  good 
repair.  And,  while  the  more  religious  of  the  people 
bewailed  the  avarice  and  corruption  that  came  in 
with  the  arts  of  peace,  and  seemed  to  flood  the  land 
with  the  vices  of  the  old  Canaanites,f  they  yet  im- 
proved the  leisure  given,  for  culture  and  the  practice 
of  written  composition.  The  eventful  time  that  fol- 
lowed found  its  utterance  in  Amos,  Hosea,  Isaiah, 
and  Micah.  Wliile  ominous  clouds  hung  in  the 
horizon,  still  higher  and  higher  rose  the  strain  of 
prophecy  ;  and  Isaiah's  triumphant  predictions  of  a 
Messiah  J  were  uttered  when  the  king  of  Israel  had 
allied  himself  with  a  foreign  invader  for  the  ruin  of 
Judah,  when  the  most  formidable  power  the  world 
had  yet  known  was  lowering  in  the  far  northeast, 
and  "the  king's  heart  and  the  heart  of  his  people 
were  moved,  as  trees  of  the  forest  are  moved  with 
the  wind."  § 

In  the  eighty  years  that  had  elapsed  since  Elisha's 
death,  great  changes  had  come  upon  the  northern  king- 

*  Compare  Odyssey,  XV.  4U.  t  See  Isaiah,  cli.  iii.  -  v. 

X  Isaiah,  ch.  vii.  -  ix. 

§  Ibid.,  vii.  2.  Comoare  EwAld,  Die  Propheten  des  Alten  Bundes, 
Vol.  I.  p.  294. 


JEROBOAM  II.  —  AMOS  AND  HOSEA.  187 

dom.  The  long  and  vigorous  reign  of  Jeroboam  II. 
had  secured  a  good  degree  of  external  security  and 
strength,  and  had  even  restored  for  a  time  the  old 
boundaries  of  Israel.  But  causes  of  dissolution  were 
at  work  within.  Amos,  the  "  herdsman  of  Tekoah," 
a  petty  town  of  Judah,  had  given  himself  to  earnest 
missionary  service  in  the  north;  and  he  powerfully 
depicts  the  military  oppression,  the  wantonness  of 
wealth,  the  riots,  lewdness,  and  idolatry  that  accom- 
panied the  external  prosperity  and  splendour  of 
Jeroboam's  rule.  Hosea,  the  only  remaining  native 
prophet  of  the  north,  — whose  passionate  yet  tender 
objurgations  were  mostly  made  during  the  convul- 
sions that  followed  Jeroboam's  death, — -was  perse- 
cuted by  his  own  countrymen,  and  driven  into  Judah, 
where  he  wrote  out  his  ministrations  at  his  leisure. 
Thus  the  prophetic  body,  once  so  numerous  there, 
and  identified  with  so  much  of  fanaticism  and  vio- 
lence in  their  earlier  projects  to  recover  the  kingdom 
from  apostasy,  had  utterly  died  out ;  and  was  not, 
as  in  Judah,  replaced  by  that  body  of  men  of  calmer 
temper  and  more  cultivated  mind  whom  we  in  gen- 
eral understand  by  that  napae.  There  remained 
nothing  to  give  permanence  to  the  religious  ideas, 
or  a  higher  tone  to  the  personal  and  home  life  of  the 
people.  It  was  an  age  of  deep  moral  corruption,  as 
well  as  of  violence  and  crime.  A  series  of  assassi- 
nations following  the  death  of  Jeroboam  disabled 
the  monarchy  from  keeping  any  hold  on  the  popular 
loyalty,  or  adhering  to  any  clear  line  of  policy.  The 
terrible  Assyrian  invasion,  long  menaced  by  the 
prophets,  and  only  deferred  a  little  by  the  bribe  with 


188  THE  KINGS. 

which  Menahem  bought  a  longer  lease  of  his  brutal 
despotism,  came  in  the  reign  of  Pekah,  and  swept 
away  the  northern  and  eastern  portions  of  Israel,  — 
"  Zebulon,  Naphtali,  the  parts  beyond  Jordan,  and 
Galilee  of  the  Gentiles,"  —  and  by  a  cruel  and  forced 
migration  drove  the  inhabitants  to  live  in  the  strange 
country  beyond  the  Euphrates.*  At  length  Hoshea, 
the  last  who  reigned  in  Samaria,  slew  Pekah  for  his 
dastardy,  and  strove  for  seven  years  to  retrieve  the 
failing  fortunes  of  the  kingdom. 

The  Assyrians  were  a  formidable  nation  from  the 
north,  flushed  with  recent  conquest,  and  sweeping  on 
terrifically  with  the  barbarous  hordes  of  Scythians 
and  Kurds,  or  Chaldaeans,  in  their  train.  The  passion 
of  dominion  was  carrying  Ihem  towards  Egypt,  that 
land  so  tempting  for  its  ancient  fame  and  wealth 
to  every  conqueror,  from  Sennacherib  to  Napoleon. 
Syria,  Phoenicia,  and  the  several  tribes  of  Palestine 
lay  in  the  track  of  that  terrible  march.  Resistless  as 
destiny,  it  seemed  as  if  it  were  only  a  question  of 
time,  when  one  by  one  they  should  be  crushed  and 
overpassed. 

Ahaz,  king  of  Judah,  after  an  invasion  from  Pe- 
kah, leagued  with  Rezin  of  Damascus,!  and  while 
still  menaced  by  Edom  and  the  Philistines,  had  taken 

*  •  The  prophet  Nahum  was  bom  of  one  of  the  families  of  this  cap- 
tivity. Ho  witnesses  and  describes,  a  century  later,  the  gathering  ruin 
of  Nineveh  under  the  invasion  of  the  Medes. 

t  For  a  vivid  description  of  the  circumstances  leading  to  this  inva- 
sion, see  Newman's  "  Hebrew  Monarchy,"  2d  edit.,  pages  228  -  230. 
The  alliance  of  Pekah  and  Rezin  stripped  Judah  of  its  commercial 
outposts  on  the  Red  Sea,  and  might  have  resulted  in  the  fall  of  the 
kingdom,  but  that  Ahaz  (whose  "  crime  was  that  at  the  age  of  twenty 


ASSYRIAN  INVASION.  189 

the  desperate  step  of  inviting  this  formidable  power 
with  bribes  to  the  attack  of  his  alUed  neighbours, 
Syria  and  Israel.  Tiglath-pileser  had  captured  Da- 
mascus, accordingly,  and  then  swept  into  his  net  the 
outlying  districts  of  Israel ;  so  that  Pekah  (as  was 
just  mentioned)  found  himself  a  vassal  and  tributary, 
and  was  slain  by  Hoshea,  who  resolved  on  a  policy 
of  bold  resistance.  He  masked  this  policy  for  a  time 
by  the  tribute  he  still  continued  to  pay  the  Assyrians, 
meanwhile  negotiating  terms  of  alliance  with  Egypt. 

But  internal  commotions  in  this  latter  country 
rendered  the  Egyptian  alliance  "  a  broken  reed, 
which  if  a  man  lean  on,  it  should  pierce  his  hand." 
A  struggle  there  between  the  military  and  priestly 
caste  made  it  impossible  for  Sethon  to  render  any 
real  service.  The  correspondence  was  detected. 
The  threatened  nations  were  preparing  for  a  com- 
bined resistance.  Hoshea  was  instantly  seized,  and 
sent  as  prisoner  to  Nineveh,  and  Shalmanezer  laid 
siege  to  Samaria. 

The  downfall  of  the  kingdom  was  now  at  hand. 
Its  internal  disorganization  was  such  that  its  national 
life  could  not  have  endured  long-  in  vigour  at  any 
rate.  Crippled  by  its  recent  losses,  it  had  little  to 
depend  upon  except  the  main  strength  of  its  fortifi- 

he  could  not  withstand  the  combined  force  of  Damascus,  Israel,  Philis- 
tia,  Edom,  and  perhaps  Moab")  sent  to  offer  his  allegiance  to  the 
Assyrian  monarch,  who  presently  swept  away  the  Syrian  force,  cap- 
tured Damascus,  and  reduced  Samaria  to  the  condition  of  vassalage. 
The  Chronicler  adds  (2  Chr.  xxviii.  6,  8)  to  the  disasters  of  Pekah's 
invasion  the  slaughter  of  120,000  in  a  day,  and  the  capture  of  near 
twice  as  many  prisoners,  who  are  restored  without  ransom  at  the  inter- 
cession of  the  prophet  Oded. 


190  THE  KINGS. 

cations,  the  imskilfulness  of  its  besiegers,  and  the 
resolution  of  despair.  For  three  years  Samaria  con- 
tinued to  hold  its  assailants  at  bay.  The  conflict  was 
watched  with  anxiety  and  terror  by  the  neighbouring 
population  of  Judah.  Some  of  the  most  pathetic 
and  earnest  of  the  prophetic  odes*  cluster  about 
this  critical  point  of  the  Hebrew  fortunes  ;  and  the 
epitomist  departs  from  his  usual  meagre  brevity,!  as 
he  mournfully  sums  up  the  reasons  of  that  downfall 
in  the  nation's  corrupted  life  and  departure  from  its 
faith.  Samaria  fell,  and  the  kingdom  of  Israel  was 
blotted  out.  Its  people  were  taken  to  fill  the  vast 
spaces  of  the  half-built  Assyrian  capital,  or  else  were 
distributed  among  the  subject  districts. J  The  ten 
tribes  were  utterly  extinguished,  and  had  no  longer 
a  name  or  place  in  human  history.  The  rich  terri- 
tory of  Samaria  and  Galilee  lay  half  wild  until  its 
scattered  colonists  were  in  terror  from  the  increase 
of  wild  beasts  upon  them,  and  sought  to  be  instructed 
in  the  worship  of  Jehovah,  as  the  local  god,  who 
might  be  able  to  protect  them.§  A  few  missionary 
priests  were  sent  to  dwell  among  them,  and  the 
mongrel  religion  -that  grew  up  was  the  heresy  of  the 
Samaritans,  —  most  hateful  of  all  misbeliefs  to  the 
Jew,  who  prided  himself  on  the  strict  purity  of  his 
creed.  A  scanty  remnant  of  the  sect  still  forms  a 
little  community  in  Palestine. 

*  Isaiah,  chaps,  xxviii.  -  xxxii. 

t  2  Kings,  chap.  xvii.  The  book  purports  to  be  only  an  abstract,  or 
c'ompend,  from  more  copious  annals.  The  conqueror  of  Samaria  was 
Sargon.     (See  Rawlinson's  Herodotus.) 

I  A  policy  of  mercy,  as  following  the  frightful  barbarities  of  the 
siege.     See  Layard. 

4  1  Kings  xvii.  26. 


HEZEKIAH.  —  ISAIAH.  191 

It  was  fortunate  for  Jiidah,  at  this  period,  that  the 
weak  and  idolatrous  reign  of  Ahaz  —  who  had  bar- 
tered for  the  Assyrian  alliance  both  the  treasures  of 
the  temple  and  the  independence  of  the  state  *  —  was 
followed  by  that  of  Hezekiah,  perhaps  the  noblest 
and  best  of  all  the  Hebrew  kings,  whose  trusted 
counsellor  was  Isaiah,  the  noblest  and  best  of  all  the 
Hebrew  prophets.  For  once,  the  secular  and  spirit- 
ual forces  of  the  kingdom  were  brought  into  complete 
harmony ;  and  the  result  was  a  firm  attitude  and 
ultimate  security  amidst  the  most  formidable  impend- 
ing dangers.  It  was  early  in  Hezekiah's  reign  that 
the  northern  kingdom  was  submerged  in  the  flood 
of  Assyrian  invasion ;  and  to  most  it  seemed  inev- 
itable! that  the  same  fate  must  follow  for  Jerusa- 
lem. But  the  spirit  of  the  great  prophet  remained 
undaunted.  His  timely  counsel  averted  each  base 
expedient,  and  fortified  the  sometimes  wavering  reso- 
lution of  the  king.  In  the  wanton  invasion  from 
Pekah  and  Rezin,  he  had  foretold  the  triumphant 
advent  of  Judah's  new  sovereign,  the  "  prince  of 
peace."  |  He  liad  warned  Damascus  of  her  fall,  and 
bidden  Philistia  not  to  exult  in  the  desolation  that 
seemed  impending  over  Judah.§  It  was  his  counsel 
or  vehement  appeal  that  defeated  the  proposed  treaty 

*  By  means  of  which,  indeed,  says  Newman,  he  husbanded  the  re- 
sources which  afterwards  proved  effectual  in  the  crisis  then  impending. 

t  Even,  apparently,  to  the  prophet  Micah  (iii.  12),  who  speaks  as  a 
country  villager  (i.  10-  15)  of  the  events  which  Isaiah  witnessed  from 
the  capital. 

X  Isaiah,  chaps,  vii.  -  ix.  See,  also,  Zechariah,  chaps,  ix.  -  xi.,  which 
are  referred  to  this  period. 

§  Isaiah  xvii.  14. 


192  THE  KINGS. 

with  Assyria,  and  deposed  the  king's  minister,  Shebna, 
who  was  too  ready  to  yield  the  claim  of  tribute  ;  and 
so  committed  the  state  to  its  final  attitude  of  resist- 
ance.* He  even  boldly  rebuked  the  favourite  policy 
of  seeking  aid  from  Egypt,  —  chariots  and  horsemen 
in  exchange  for  subsidies  of  men  and  money  to  fight 
for  the  common  deliverance. f  When  Tyre  main- 
tained alone  the  desperate  battle  of  her  indepen- 
dence, and  for  five  years  delayed  the  stroke  that 
menaced  the  little  state  of  Judah,  his  clear  eye  saw 
the  causes  of  ruin  at  work  within,  and  he  seemed 
even  with  a  sort  of  triumph  to  anticipate  the  pe- 
riod of  her  downfall,  predicting  that  this  trader- 
city,  splendid  but  corrupt,  "  whose  merchants  were 
princes,  and  her  traffickers  the  honourable  of  the 
earth,"  would  utterly  perish  before  the  terrible  in- 
vader.J  But  this  doom  was  to  be  deferred  for  yet 
many  centuries.  While  the  rest  of  Phoenicia  was 
overrun.  Tyre  held  out  bravely  in  her  island-fortress ; 
her  little  squadron  of  twelve  battle-ships  vanquished 
the  hostile  fleet  of  sixty  ;  §  and  Sennacherib,  who  suc- 
ceeded to  the  baffled  Shalmanezer,  hastened  to  the 
easier  conquests  of  the  south. 

The  Hebrew  king  had  not  failed  to  improve  the 
opportunity  of  delay.  The  fortifications  of  Jerusa- 
lem were  freshly  repaired  and  manned.  The  policy 
of  the  Egyptian  alliance  was  held  in  reserve,  if  not 
positively  acted  on.||     An  Ethiopian  embassy,  from 

*  Isaiah,  chap.  xxii.  t  Ibid.,  chap.  xxxi. 

t  Ibid,,  chap,  xxiii. 

§  Grote's  Greece,  Chap.  XVIII. ;  Josephus,  IX.  14,  2. 

II  2  Kings  xviii.  21. 


SENNACHERIB.  193 

the  far  highlands  of  Africa,  came  to  negotiate  in  Je- 
rusalem for  mutual  defence  against  a  power  that 
seemed  to  aim  at  the  conquest  of  the  world.*  The 
firm  and  powerful  league  thus  secured  among  the 
menaced  nations,  the  successful  defence  of  Tyre,  and, 
possibly,  the  threatened  revolt  of  Babylon,  all  com- 
bined to  check  what  had  seemed  the  resistless  in- 
vasion of  Sennacherib.  While  he  was  engaged  in 
securing  the  conquest  of  the  hill-country  and  the  sea- 
board, the  terror  of  the  capital  (excited  probably  by 
the  dreadful  barbarities  exercised  on  Lachishf)  had 
gone  so  far  that  Hezekiah  sent  him  propitiatory  gifts, 
and  would  have  become  his  vassal  but  for  his  treach- 
erous attack  and  the  insolent  terms  he  offered,  which 
drove  the  nation  upon  a  last  desperate  defence. 

But  the  storm  of  invasion  passed  away  as  myste- 
riously and  suddenly  as  it  had  been  formidable  in  its 
gathering.  Sennacherib  was  turned  aside  from  Ju- 
dah  by  the  rumour  of  an  Ethiopian  host  said  to  be 
gathering  in  his  rear.  To  oppose  his  attack,  the 
Egyptians  had  only  a  suddenly  mustered  force  of 
artisans,  over  whom  the  Assyrian  records  claim  a 
signal  victory.  But  an  invisible  power,  which  both 
Hebrew  and  Egyptian  represent  as  a  special  interpo- 

*  See  2  Kings  xix.  9  and  Isaiah,  chap,  xviii.,  in  which  the  prophet 
hids  the  messengers  return  and  announce  the  impending  ruin  of  the 
Assyrians.  Ethiopia  was  the  power  that  now  ruled  in  Upper  Egypt. 
(Newman,  p.  263) 

t  Which  are  represented  in  detail  in  the  sculptured  works  of  Nine- 
veh. (See  Layard's  "  Babylon  and  Nineveh,"  p.  149.)  The  inscriptions 
coincide  with  the  Hebrew  narrative,  as  to  the  exact  number  of  golden 
talents  of  Hezekiah's  tribute.  For  Isaiah's  message  of  defiance,  on 
hearing  of  these  enormities,  see  chap,  xxxiii. 

9  M 


194  THE  KINGS. 

sition  of  the  Divine  Protector,  baffled  the  conquering 
host.  According  to  the  narrative  of  the  latter,  the 
Assyrian  army,  after  crossing  the  desert,  vras  encoun- 
tered on  the  Egyptian  border  by  a  multitude  of  field- 
mice,  which  gnawed  their  shield-thongs,  quiver-bands, 
and  bowstrings,  and  so  rendered  the  whole  equipment 
worthless.*  As  the  Hebrew  account  proceeds,  the 
forces  of  Sennacherib  were  advancing  upon  Jerusa- 
lem, and  the  city  lay  in  a  hush  of  terrified  expectation, 
when  the  angel  of  Jehovah,  in  the  form  of  a  deadly 
pestilence,  destroyed  in  a  single  night  a  hundred 
and  eighty-five  thousand  men.  The  discomfited 
king  hastened  back  to  his  capital,  where  he  presently 
encountered  the  revolt  of  the  warlike  Medes,  the  open 
hostility  of  Babylon,  and  the  impending  dissolution 
of  his  empire.  He  perished  by  assassination  at  the 
hands  of  his  own  sons ;  but  not  before  the  victories 
and  splendours  of  his  reign  had  converted  the  wide 
district-city  of  Nineveh  into  a  capital  of  unparalleled 
magnificence. 

The  sudden  deliverance  exalted  to  the  highest  pitch 
both  the  glory  and  the  confidence  of  Judah.  The 
fame  of  Hezekiah,  the  first  of  monarchs  who  had 
turned  back  the  fury  of  Assyrian  conquest,  spread  as 
far  as  to  the  revolted  satrap  of  Babylon,  and  messen- 
gers from  Merodach-Baladan  came  to  solicit  the  alli- 
ance of  Jerusalem, — a  policy  which  Isaiah  prudently 
discouraged.  A  later  composition  of  the  great  proph- 
et f  expresses  his  confidence  that  the  tumults  and 
commotions  now  prevailing  in  Egypt  J  might  be  Je- 

♦  Herodotus,  11.  141.  t  Isaiah,  chap.  xix. 

t  See  Herodotus,  II.  141,  147,  151. 


CLOSE   OF   HEZEKIAH'S  KEIGN.  195 

hovah's  method  of  winning  that  ancient  kingdom 
from  idolatry,  so  that  a  reign  of  peace  might  come, 
and  hate  might  cease,  and  alliance  and  harmony  pre- 
vail between  Egypt,  Assyria,  and  Judah.  Songs  of 
victory  and  prophetic  odes  of  this  period,*  still  fur- 
ther express  the  temper  of  a  fond  and  exulting  con- 
fidence, which  was  the  reaction  from  long  dismay. 
Trust  in  the  inviolability  of  Zion's  sacred  hill,  suf- 
ficiently defended  by  the  arm  of  its  invisible  Cham- 
pion and  Deliverer,  and  by 

"  Siloa's  fount  that  flowed 
Hard  by  the  oracle  of  God," 

became  a  point  of  religious  faith,  which  it  were 
almost  traitorous  to  doubt,  —  a  fatal  confidence  it 
proved,  leading  to  rash  contempt  of  real  dangers,  and 
bitterly  rebuked,  a  century  later,  in  the  overthrow  of 
the  holy  city  and  the  pillage  of  the  temple  by  Neb- 
uchadnezzar. But  for  the  present  there  was  no 
such  drawback  to  the  nation's  exalted  and  kindling 
hope ;  and  Hezekiah  recovered  from  what  seemed  a 
fatal  sickness,  taken  as  some  have  thought  by  the 
contagion  of  that  great  pestilence,  to  live  fifteen 
years  longer,  as  in  answer  to  his  pathetic  prayer,  and 
finally  to  close  his  life  in  glory  and  peace. 

III.  The  closing  century  of  the  Hebrew  monarchy 
is  almost  equally  divided  between  two  violent  —  and, 
in  their  later  consequences,  fatal — revolutions  affect- 
ing the  political  interests  along  with  the  religion  of 
the  kingdom. 

Manasseh  was  but  a  boy  of  twelve  when  he  came 
to  the  inheritance  of  his  father's  crown.     There  were 

*  Psalms  xlvi.,  xlviii.,  Ixv.,  Ixxv.,  Ixxvi. 


196  THE  KINGS. 

now  apparently  no  men  of  eminence,  of  the  party  most 
faithful  to  the  national  institutions,  to  claim  a  con- 
trolling influence  in  his  counsels.  Isaiah  had  prob- 
ably died  during  the  latter  portion  of  Hezekiah's 
reign.*  The  young  king  fell  under  the  control  of 
the  men  who  had  brought  on  the  disgraces  of  the 
rule  of  Ahaz.  Comparisons  began  to  be  drawn  to  the 
disadvantage  of  the  Jewish  state,  in  point  of  opulence 
and  refinement,  between  that  and  neighbouring  re- 
gions. The  Hebrew  faith  had  not  emancipated  itself 
from  the  limited  and  exclusive  sense  which  had  once 
been  a  matter  of  necessity.  Tlie  more  generous  tem- 
per of  Isaiah  or  Micah  was  by  no  means  reflected  in 
the  general  religious  mind.  What  we  call  liberal- 
ity and  tolerance  was  most  likely  unfitted  to  the 
temper  of  the  nation,  and  unsuited  to  the  condition 
of  the  time.  Exclusiveness  may  have  been  the  price 
which  even  the  best  were  too  glad  to  pay  for  zeal. 
At  any  rate,  no  common  ground  seems  to  have  been 
found  for  the  two  parties  in  Judah  to  occupy  together. 
The  supremacy,  even  the  security,  of  one  could  be 
purchased  only  by  the  ruin  of  the  other. 

It  may  be,  too,  that  some  actually  existing  religious 
wants  and  longings  were  imperfectly  met  by  the  He- 
brew faith,  at  least  in  the  popular  understanding  of 
it.  Mosaism  stood  always  in  an  attitude  either  of 
aggression  or  defence  before  the  religions  of  the 
world.  Being  essentially  an  antagonistic  and  not  a 
reconciling  faith,  it  was  very  likely  to  reject  elements 
of  culture  which  should   have   been   freely  sought. 

*  The  tradition  that  he  was  sawn  asunder  in  Manasseh's  persecution 
has  neither  proof  nor  probability. 


IDOLATKIES   OF  MANASSEH.  197 

By  its  rejection  of  Christianity,  long  after,  it  con- 
demned itself  to  stand  forever  in  the  light  of  history 
as  a  truncated  religion.  Its  own  intellectual  man- 
hood it  never  reached.  Something  its  intrinsic 
character  seems  always  to  have  lacked  for  its  own 
harmony  and  fulness ;  and  when  this  could  not  be 
supplied  from  a  higher  intellectual  or  moral  type,  it 
would  naturally  be  sought  elsewhere. 

We  find  indications  of  this  fact  in  the  people's 
obstinate  attachment  from  of  old  to  the  relics  of 
Canaanite  superstition,*  and  in  the  craving  now  ex- 
hibited for  foreign  mysteries  and  rites.  In  imitation 
of  Babylonish  or  Syrian  custom,  Ahaz  had  introduced 
chariots  and  horses  of  the  sun-god,  and  built  a  "  sun- 
dial," or  watch-tower,  to  observe  the  courses  of  the 
stars.  Manasseh  now  followed  still  further  this  policy 
of  his  gTandfather.  Star-worship  was  again  assidu- 
ously cultivated.  The  horrid  rites  of  Moloch  were 
performed  afresh  by  making  the  king's  own  children 
"  pass  through  the  fire  "  in  honour  of  that  grim  idol ; 
and  the  vale  of  Hinnom,  with  its  ghastly  mound  for 
sacrifice,!  became  the  polluted  place  which  it  ever 
after  remained  in  the  imagination  of  the  Jew.  Altar 
and  ark  were  taken  from  the  temple.  In  retaliation 
for  Hezekiah's  vigorous  reform,  the  first  example 
was  set  in  Judah  of  making  the  foreign  religion  an 
exclusive,   inexorable,   persecuting  faith.     As   if  to 

*  See  1  Kings,  chap.  xvii. 

t  This  is  one  probable  signification  of  the  name  "  Tophet,"  which 
has  been  variously  held  to  denote  the  place  of  loathing,  burning,  burial, 
or  of  the  drum,  which  instrument,  it  is  said,  was  used  to  drown  the 
victims'  cries.  See  Gesenius  ;  also  Ghillany,  "  Die  Menschenopfer  der 
alten  Hebraer." 


198  THE  KINGS. 

provide  against  future  disasters,  foreign  divinities 
were  assiduously  sought ;  for  it  was  one  of  the  super- 
stitions of  antiquity,  that  so  the  gods  of  other  nations 
might  be  propitiated,  and  the  power  of  their  wor- 
shippers reduced.  And,  as  a  final  defiance  of  the 
prejudices  of  his  countrymen,  the  king's  son  was 
called  by  the  Egyptian  name  Amoun,  as  if  he  were 
devoted  from  his  birth  to  that  divinity  of  the  realm 
of  sand. 

The  religious  spirit  of  the  people 'Was^  utterly  de- 
pressed. No  one  was  found  to  wear  the  mantle  that 
had  been  borne  so  worthily  by  an  Elijah  or  an  Isaiah. 
That  nobler  generation  of  prophets  had  passed  away. 
Those  who  now  bore  the  name  were  "  dumb  dogs  that 
would  not  bark ;"  and  if  Ezekiel*  charges  the  proph- 
ets of  his  time  with  magic  rites,  it  is  because  they  too 
shared  in  the  demoralization  of  this  unhappy  period, 
and  had  learned  to  distrust  the  efficiency  of  the  gen- 
uine Hebrew  faith.  Those  who  were  so  bold  as  to 
resist  the  invading  superstitions  were  mercilessly  put 
down,  until  "  Jerusalem  was  filled  with  blood  from 
one  end  to  the  other ; "  and  a  large  number,  despair- 
ing of  life  or  peace  otherwise,  took  refuge  in  Egypt, 
among  those  who  had  fled  thither  in  terror  of  the 
Assyrian  invasion. 

The  long  reign  of  Manasseh,  the  longest  in  the 
Hebrew  annals,  thus  witnessed  the  violent  persecu- 
tion of  the  ancient  faith  of  Israel,  and  the  expatria- 
tion of  those  who  should  have  been  the  centre  of  the 
nation's  strength.  The  price  thus  paid  seems  for  a 
long  time  to  have  secured  the  outward  tranquillity 

*  Chap.  xiii.  17. 


SEEDS   OF  REVOLUTION.  199 

which  was  partly  its  motive.  Judah  was  for  this 
whole  half-century  unmolested  by  foreign  enemies. 
Nothing  is  told  in  the  earlier  narrative  of  any  other 
events  than  those  touching  the  religious  affairs  of 
the  kingdom ;  and  the  later  account,  that  Manasseh 
was  carried  captive  to  Babylon,  where  he  repented 
and  afterwards  made  public  atonement  of  his  wrong, 
reads  like  a  moral  apologue,  or  a  veil  to  disguise  the 
unbroken  tranquillity  of  so  impious  a  reign.* 

But  the  retribution  attending  the  king's  criminal 
policy  fell  heavily  upon  the  nation  after  his  death. 
His  cruelties  were  speedily  avenged  in  the  assassina- 
tion of  his  son.  He  had  deeply  affronted  the  most 
sacred  sentiments  and  recollections  of  his  people  ;  and 
he  was  long  after  f  regarded  as  the  real  author  of  the 
nation's  downfall.  The  popular  conscience,  though 
silenced  for  a  time,  would  be  heard  at  length.  A  rev- 
olution had  been  long  preparing  in  men's  thoughts, 
which,  in  the  reign  of  Josiah,  immediately  succeeding, 
was  carried  out  in  the  stern  policy  of  retaliation. 

Perhaps  it  is  at  this  period  that  we  are  to  date  the 
beginning  of  the  influence,  afterwards  so  decisive  and 
profound,  of  Egyptian  culture  upon  the  Hebrew  mind. 
A.  long  residence  in  Egypt  had  given  to  a  body  of  in- 
telligent, religious,  and  faithful  men  leisure  for  re- 
casting the  memories  and  old  records  of  their  nation, 
after  the  model  formed  by  the  style  of  thought  illus- 
trated in  the   prophets.     The  early  history  was  in 

*  2  Chronicles  xxxiii.  11-17.  The  account  makes  him  to  be  taken 
to  Babylon  by  the  Assyrians,  now  in  the  later  stage  of  their  decline ; 
while  his  reign  is  directly  followed  (as  in  Kings)  by  the  idolatries  of 
Araon.    Ewald,  however,  accepts  Manasseh's  captivity  as  a  fact. 

t  See  Jeremiah  xv.  4. 


200  THE   KINGS. 

some  measure  re-written  in  this  spirit,  and  made  to 
preach  the  lessons  of  the  day.  Debarred  from  the 
favourite  forms  of  the  prophetic  appeal  and  occa- 
sional ode,  the  Hebrew  writers  of  the  time  carried 
the  thought  and  style  of  prophecy  far  back  into  the 
legendary  past.  The  eventful  history  of  the  nation 
was  read  in  the  kindling  light  of  that  religious  and 
providential  significance  with  which  early  faith  and 
later  memory  fondly  clothed  it.  Especially  the  book 
of  Deuteronomy,  the  "  later  law,"  wS.s  very  probably 
composed  about  this  time,  —  from  some  indications 
in  Egypt  itself ;  *  and  a  foundation  was  laid,  in  the 
earnest,  solemn,  and  impressive  character  of  that 
most  remarkable  of  the  prophetic  books,  for  what 
was  afterwards  carried  out  in  practice  as  the  "  Deu- 
teronomical  Reform."  f 

The  volume  of  the  Law,  thus  completed  and  recast, 
found  its  way  to  Jerusalem,  and  made  the  most  pro- 
found impression  on  the  young  King  Josiah,  to  whom 
it  was  presented  by  the  priest.  It  formed  at  once 
the  rallying-point  of  revivhig  loyalty,  and  a  channel 
for  the  returning  tide  of  patriotic  faith.     From  this 

*  See  Deuteronomy  xxiii.  7  ;  xxviii.  68. 

t  This  view  is  suggested  by  Ewald,  and  coincides  with  the  analogies 
which  have  long  been  observed  between  some  details  of  the  Hebrew- 
ritual,  as  recounted  in  Deuteronomy,  —  especially  the  formula  of  bless- 
ing and  cursing,  —  with  similar  forms  in  the  Egyptian  liturgy.  It  is 
adopted  here,  not  on  critical  grounds  chiefly,  but  in  order  to  present 
a  fair,  connected  view  of  this  portion  of  the  admirable  narrative 
of  Ewald.  By  the  aid  of  a  doubtful  chronology,  the  reform  here 
spoken  of  has  been  connected  with  the  reform  of  the  "  nature-relig- 
ion "  in  India  by  Buddha,  in  Persia  by  Zoroaster,  and  in  Greece  by 
Xenophanes  and  others.  (See  Mackay's  "Progress  of  the  Intellect," 
Vol.  II.  p.  438.) 


JOSIAH'S   REFORM.  201 

time  forth,  with  more  or  less  of  variation,  the  Penta- 
teuch, which  was  previously  unknown,  at  least  as  a 
whole,  to  king  or  people,  became  the  central  object 
of  Jewish  veneration,  and  began  to  be  preserved  with 
religious  care.  Its  stern  admonitions  against  apos- 
tasy, reflecting  the  temper  roused  in  that  bitter  time 
of  persecution,  were  observed  in  Josiah's  zealous 
abolition  of  all  traces  of  alien  worship  ;  while  the 
humane  and  gentle  spirit  of  the  later  law,  embody- 
ing the  sorrows  and  sympathies  of  exile,  was  carried 
out  in  his  merciful  and  popular  rule. 

The  reform  begun  under  royal  auspices  was  heart- 
ily responded  to  by  the  people.  A  brief  period  fol- 
lowed of  prosperity  and  glory.  Only  the  deep  wounds 
inflicted  by  these  successive  and  too  violent  changes, 
together  with  fresh  perils  from  abroad,  prevented  a 
complete  regeneration  of  the  Hebrew  state.  The  re- 
ligious spirit  could  scarce  avoid  being  affected  by  the 
precision,  formalism,  and  pedantic  dogmatism  which 
would  result  from  the  reverence  now  encouraged  to- 
wards sacred  books  and  institutions.  A  tyrannous 
and  violent  apostasy  had  brought  on  a  violent  recoil. 
There  was  something,  indeed,  spasmodic  in  the  entire 
conduct  of  the  reform,  as  its  details  are  hinted  in 
our  brief  chronicle  ;  and  the  incessant  complaints  of 
Jeremiah  and  Ezekiel  show  how  little  the  general 
character  of  the  people  was  penetrated  by  the  spirit- 
ual doctrine  so  rigorously  enforced. 

Meanwhile,  the  gathering  forces  of  rival  empires 
threatened  new  calamities  from  the  northeast.  The 
conquering  progress  of  the  Medes,  before  whom  the 
splendid  capital  of  the  Assyrians  already  tottered  to 

9* 


202  THE   KINGS. 

its  fall,*  was  checked  by  a  sudden  irruption  of  one 
of  those  Scythian  or  Tartar  hordes  from  Central  Asia, 
causing  the  same  consternation  among  the  more  civ- 
ilized nations  as  was  felt  in  Europe  at  the  invasion 
of  the  Huns.  They  came  as  far  as  Palestine,  where 
the  frightful  desolation  of  their  inroad,  as  of  wild 
beasts  rather  than  men,  is  told  in  all  images  of  horror 
by  the  prophets ;  f  and,  under  the  obscure  name  of 
Magog,  they  have  furnished  the  Scripture  imagery 
for  the  terrors  of  the  latter  day.  But  an  undisci- 
plined barbarian  horde  spreads  and  loses  itself,  like 
water  in  the  sand,  or  else  is  drafted  into  the  service 
of  some  more  civilized  power.  The  Scythians  were 
thought  to  have  been  struck  with  "  womanish  dis- 
ease," or  nervelessness,  in  vengeance  for  their  rob- 
bery of  a  Syrian  temple  of  Astarte ;  their  chieftains 
were  massacred  by  the  Modes  at  a  banquet  where 
they  had  been  received  as  guests  ;  and,  being  enrolled 
in  the  Assyrian  forces  during  their  last  defence,  theirs 
is  perhaps  one  of  the  unknown  tongues  of  the  Nine- 
vite  inscriptions.  The  brief  tempest  spent  itself ;  and 
within  thirty  years  the  great  powers  were  ready  to 
begin  their  game  anew.J 

The  fortunes  of  Judah  now  hastened  rapidly  to  a 
crisis.  Josiah  may  have  relied  on  some  favouring 
oracle,§  declaring  him  the  invincible  champion  of 

*  See  the  spirited  description  of  Nahum,  who  writes  as  an  eyewit- 
ness of  their  invasion.     Compare  Herodotus,  I.  102. 

t  See  Zephaniah ;  Jeremiah,  chap,  iv.-vi. ;  Psalm  lix. 

t  Herodotus,  I.  103  -  106. 

§  Huldah  had  foretold  (2  Kings  xxii.  20)  that  he  should  be  "gath- 
ered to  his  grave  in  peace,"  without  witnessing  the  calamities  that 
would  follow. 


DEATH   OF  JOSIAH.  203 

the  true  faith.  He  may  have  conceived  the  rash  am- 
bition to  recover  the  boundaries  as  he  had  restored 
the  institutions  of  David's  kingdom.  With  his  slen- 
der force  he  undertook  to  resist  the  king  of  Egypt, 
who  hastened  to  anticipate  the  advance  of  the  Medes 
in  Syria.  In  vain  Necho  represented  that  his  design 
was  altogether  friendly  to  Judah,  and  that  he  was 
engaged  in  keeping  off  a  common  enemy.  His  pol- 
icy in  occupying  the  seaports  of  Palestine  roused  the 
suspicious  jealousy  of  Josiah,  who  had  already  begun 
to  exercise  a  sort  of  protectorate  over  the  whole  ex- 
tent of  Canaan,  feebly  occupied  by  the  scanty  Samar- 
itan population.  He  encountered  Necho  near  the 
Galilean  seaboard  ;  and  the  plain  of  Megiddo,  which 
had  witnessed,  seven  centuries  before,  the  vindication 
of  Hebrew  independence  in  Deborah's  splendid  tri- 
umph, witnessed  now  its  downfall  in  the  defeat  and 
death  of  Josiah,  the  last  worthy  inheritor  of  David's 
crown  and  lineage. 

"  Weep  ye  not  for  the  dead,"  said  Jeremiah, 
chiding  the  passionate  lamentation  of  the  people, 
"  neither  mourn  for  him  ;  but  weep  bitterly  for  him 
that  goeth  away,  for  he  shall  return  no  more,  nor 
see  his  native  land."  *  The  death  of  Josiah  was 
only  the  commencement  of  that  train  of  calamities 
which  within  twenty  years  destroyed  forever  the 
monarchy  of  Judah.  His  son  was  detained  as  pris- 
oner or  hostage  in  Egypt,  and  Jehoiakim  ruled  ten 
years  or  more  as  a  vassal  of  the  conqueror.  When 
Nineveh  was  taken  by  the  Medes,  the  star  of  Babylon 
was  in  the  ascendant ;  and  the  young  chief  Nebuchad- 

*  Jeremiah  xxii.  10. 


204  THE  KINGSr 

nezzar,  leagued  with  the  Medes  to  destroy  the  only  ri- 
val power,  discomfited  the  Egyptian  force  at  Carche- 
mish,  and  succeeded  to  its  domination  over  Judah. 

In  vain  Jehoiakim  maintained  a  brief  struggle 
against  the  Chaldaean  power.  The  weakness  of  Ju- 
dah made  it  a  prey  to  the  new  spoiler,  while  old 
enmities  of  neighbouring  tribes  now  broke  out 
afresh.*  The  king  died  amidst  the  terror  of  the 
impending  overthrow,  and  his  son  surrendered  him- 
self, without  a  blow,  to  be  taken  with  ten  thousand 
captives  to  Babylon.  The  ill-fated  Zedekiah,  brother 
of  Jehoiakim,  was  put  upon  the  throne  as  a  subject- 
prince,  or  tool,  to  serve  the  pleasure  of  the  Chaldaean 
despot. 

The  calamities  of  the  time  f  again  drove  many  to 
seek  refuge  in  Egypt ;  and  there  seemed  even  a  hope 
that  an  alliance  with  that  country  might  enable 
Judah  to  throw  off  the  yoke  of  Babylon.  But  the 
power  of  Apries,  now  king  there,  had  been  wrecked 
in  a  hazardous  campaign  in  Libya,  and  his  strongest 
vassal,  Amasis,  slew  him  shortly  after  in  a  revolt.  J 
The  late  king's  imprisonment  in  Babylon,  whither 
he  was  summoned  at  the  first  suspicion  of  his  faith, 
warned  Zedekiah  what  he  had  to  expect  from  any 
recreancy.  He  swore  allegiance  anew,  and  was  suf- 
fered a  few  years  longer  to  hold  the  tottering  throne. 

But  the  stimulus  constantly  afforded  by  the  sor- 

*  Ammon  and  Moab  now  appear  again  (2  Kings  xxiv.  2)  as  ene- 
mies ;  while  the  fierce  vengeance  of  Edom  makes  the  theme  of  the 
brief  prophecy  of  Obadiah.     See  also  Psalm  cxxxvii.  7. 

t  Ilabakkuk  about  this  season  teaches  for  the  first  time  the  profound 
lesson  of  trust  without  hope. 

t  See  Herodotus,  II.  161-169. 


ZEDEKIAH'S    REVOLT.  —  JEREMIAH.  205 

rowful  and  impatient  exiles  of  the  Euphrates,  to- 
gether with  the  fanatic  confidence  of  a  party  among 
the  people,  the  memory  of  their  signal  deliverance 
from  Sennacherib,  and  their  fond  trust  that  the 
ramparts  of  Zion  were  impregnable  to  any  heathen 
force,  compelled,  as  it  were,  the  final  hopeless  and 
ruinous  revolt.  In  the  uneasy  and  highly  roused 
temper  of  the  time  there  were  not  wanting  those 
who  confidently  foretold  a  splendid  triumph,*  and 
the  immediate  coming  of  the  Messiah,  or  the  nation's 
ideal  and  victorious  king,  f  So  frantic  was  the  as- 
surance of  some,  that,  during  a  short  respite  of  the 
siege  that  followed,  they  reduced  again  to  bondage 
certain  slaves  or  captives,  whom  they  had  emanci- 
pated so  as  to  serve  in  the  desperate  defence.  J 

The  prophets  of  clearer  vision,  as  Jeremiah  and 
Habakkuk,  saw  the  condition  of  affairs  too  well  to 
hold  out  any  treacherous  hope.  If  anything  were 
wanting  to  verify  their  cheerless  words,  it  was  found 
in  the  civil  feud  which  not  even  the  siege  could 
bring  to  terms.  Zedekiah  had  staked  everything  on 
the  cast  of  this  revolt,  and  played  the  game  out  as  a 
desperate  man,  upheld  by  a  fanatic  party  of  relig- 
ionists, who  conceived  it  infamous  to  yield  a  point 
of  sacred  ground,  or  to  harbour  a  doubt  of  Jeho- 
vah's invincible  protection.  On  the  other  hand, 
whatever  chance  there  might  have  been  at  least 
of  a  longer  struggle,  if  not  of  eventual  triumph, 
was  foiled  by  the  continual  despairing  protest  of 
Jeremiah.      At   one   time   he   seems  to  have   stood 

*  See  Jeremiah,  chap.  xxix.  f  See  Zechariah,  chap,  xii.,  xiv. 

J  Jeremiah,  chap,  xxxiv. 


206  THE  KINGS. 

quite  alone  in  his  predictions  of  evil,  and  was  openly 
charged  with  traitorous  plottings  with  the  enemy.* 
His  defence  was,  that  Micah,  in  the  former  siege,  had 
uttered  similar  predictions;  and  the  shelter  of  that 
name  was  sufficient  for  his  acquittal.  Apparently, 
he  held  defeat  or  surrender  to  be  only  a  necessary 
prelude  to  greater  security  and  peace,  and  that  the 
king's  resistance  was  the  real  hostility  against  the 
land ;  for,  to  show  his  confidence  in  better  times 
that  should  follow,  he  made  and  publicly  registered 
the  purchase  of  a  field  in  his  native  village. f  His 
sincerity  was  evident  enough,  and  the  sanctity  of  his 
character  was  a  shelter  from  any  act  of  gross  vio- 
lence. But  the  party  in  power  charged  him  with 
being  the  evil  genius  that  tied  their  hands,  demoral- 
ized their  discipline,  and  held  them  from  using  their 
real  strength.  The  king,  embarrassed  by  an  influ- 
ence so  wholly  out  of  his  control,  kept  him  for  some 
time  confined  in  an  open  house-court,  or  private 
jail ;  then,  on  a  charge  of  traitorous  practices, 
threw  him  into  a  dungeon,  where,  in  damp  and 
noisomeness,  he  was  in  peril  of  his  life  ;  J  then, 
in  compassion,  or  in  deference  to  those  who  revered 
the  sincere  though  despairing  prophet,  restored  him 
once  more  to  liberty.  And  so  the  siege  wore  on  for 
about  two  years. 

At  length  "  famine  prevailed  in  the  city,  and  there 
was  no  bread  for  the  people  of  the  land.  The  city 
was  broken  up,  and  all  the  men  of  war  fled  away  by 
night."     The  king  was  captured   near  Jericho,  and 

*  Jeremiah,  chap,  xxxvii  13.  f  Ibid.,  chap,  xxxii. 

t  Ibid.,  chap,  xxxviii. 


FALL   OF   JERUSALEM.  207 

led  before  the  conqueror.  His  children  were  slain 
before  his  face,  his  own  eyes  were  put  out,  and  in 
this  horrible  plight  he  was  taken  to  the  prison 
of  Babylon.  The  fortifications  of  Jerusalem  were 
broken  down.  Palace  and  temple  were  burned  with 
fire.  The  gathered  treasures  of  the  kings  and  the 
sacred  vessels  of  the  sanctuary  were  taken  to  grace 
the  carousal  of  the  Babylonish  conqueror.  The 
slender  remnant  of  the  population  were  either  car- 
ried into  captivity  "  by  the  waters  of  Babylon,"  or 
fled  to  Egypt  (whither  Jeremiah  went  imwillingly 
to  pass  the  remainder  of  his  days*),  or  else  were  suf- 
fered, under  a  native  governor,  to  till  the  desolate 
fields  of  Judah.  A  few  helpless  struggles  against 
the  pressure  of  that  heavy  hand,  a  few  stern  meas- 
ures of  vengeance  or  suppression,  and  the  fair  land 
of  Canaan,  which  had  been  "  as  Eden  or  as  the  gar- 
den of  Jehovah,"  the  Land  of  Promise,  which  for  so 
many  centuries  had  been  and  was  yet  to  be  the  cen- 
tre of  Hebrew  affection,  and  the  home  of  Hebrew 
faith,  was  in  the  desolate  condition  portrayed  in  the 
pathetic  Lamentations  of  Jeremiah  :  — 

"  How  doth  the  city  sit  solitary,  that  was  full  of  people  ! 
How  is  she  become  as  a  widow  ! 

She  that  was  great  among  the  nations,  princess  among  the  prov- 
inces. 
How  is  she  become  tributary  ! 
Judah  goeth  into  exile,  affliction,  and  slavery : 
Her  dwelling  is  abroad  among  the  nations : 
She  findeth  no  repose  !  " 

*  Here  he  uttered  his  protest  against  the  national  idolatry,  strove  to 
revive  or  keep  up  the  Hebrew  spirit  of  his  countrymen,  and  foretold  an 
approaching  conquest  (unknown  to  history)  of  that  land  by  Nebuchad- 


VII.    THE   LAW. 

IT  is  among  the  manners  of  primeval  and  patri- 
archal life  that  we  must  seek  the  germ  of  those 
institutions  which  have  given  the  Hebrews  their 
marked  place  in  history.  Many  elements  of  their 
religion  had  root  in  the  common  soil  of  Oriental 
culture.  Their  customs  were  the  later  and  devel- 
oped form  of  tribal  habits,  which  we  faintly  trace  by 
their  relics  in  Hebrew  song  or  legend,  and  by  their 
affinities  in  the  customs  of  kindred  tribes.  What- 
ever influence  was  brought  to  bear  upon  them  by 
the  shaping  hand  of  Moses,  or  by  a  later  and  purer 
monotheism,  or  by  the  civil  policy  of  the  kings,  we 
must  assume  for  their  understanding  that  back- 
ground of  popular  feeling  which  so  slowly  yielded 
before  the  characteristic  faith  of  Judaism,  and  that 
sensuous  or  bloody  superstition  embodied  in  the  rites 
of  Syrian  worship. 

Of  the  primitive  and  rude  fetichism  that  seems  to 
belong  to  the  infancy  of  every  people,  but  faint  and 
as  it  were  second-hand  traces  are  to  be  discerned  in 
the  Hebrew  writings.  At  the  earliest  period  which 
we  can  see  with  any  clearness,  it  had  already  nearly 
passed  the  transition  state  of  star-worship,*  and  was 

*  See  page  12,  for  the  legend  indicating  this  transition;  also  Deu- 
teronomy iv.  19. 


SYRIAN   MYTHOLOGY.  209 

supplanted  by  a  pretty  well  defined  polytheism,  the 
influence  of  which  is  strongly  marked  on  the  earlier 
customs,  and  on  much  of  the  religious  language, 
of  the  Hebrews.  Each  tribe  or  nation  had  its  sev- 
eral divinity.*  The  "jealous  God"  of  Israel  found 
a  rival  in  Baal  of  the  Canaanites,  Dagon  of  the  Phi- 
listines, Chemosh  of  Moab,  Molech  of  Ammon,  in 
Ashera  the  lewd  or  Ashteroth  the  bloody  goddess 
of  the  Syrians.  To  the  popular  fancy  these  were 
real  deities  :  and  down  to  a  late  period,  spite  of  the 
stern  legislation  of  Moses,  and  the  reproaches  of  the 
prophets,  who  called  them  devils,  these  "  gods  of  the 
nations  "  received  the  people's  obstinate  homage. 

The  strongly  marked  features  of  race,  climate,  and 
scenery  must  all  serve  in  some  measure  as  a  guide,  in 
estimating  that  common  character  which  ran  through 
these  varieties  of  Shemitic  worship.  The  group  of 
tribes,  or  petty  nations,  inhabiting  the  regions  of 
Syria  were  kindred  not  only  in  blood  but  in  faith. 
Their  mind  was  cast  in  a  common  mould.  Their  rites 
and  institutions  were  modelled  after  a  common  type. 
Their  fancy  was  kindled  and  trained  by  the  same 
great  natural  objects, — sea,  desert  or  mountain,  land 
and  sky.  The  fascinating,  yet  often  terrible  mythol- 
ogy of  the  East,  so  imperfectly  known  to  us  through 
the  allusions  in  Scripture  story,  or  by  the  later 
accounts  of  the  Greeks,  is  most  easily  interpreted  to 
our  imagination  by  the  subtile  connection  which  traces 

*  The  Alexandrian  commentators  found  this  doctrine  expressly 
taught  in  Deut.  xxxiii.  8,  translating  the  latter  clause,  "  according  to 
the  number  of  his  angels,"  —  the  number  being  held  to  be  seventy- 
two, —  whom  Philo  identifies  with  the  "daemons"  of  the  Greeks. 

N 


210  THE  LAW. 

its  symbols  and  analogies  in  the  soil,  the  seasons,  and 
the  sky  of  Syria. 

El  "  the  Mighty  "  *  is  the  name  of  the  mysterious 
Nature-Deity,  and  leads  the  mythic  cycle.  The  vast 
and  vague  conception  would  require  nothing  less 
than  the  universe  for  its  embodiment.  But  religious 
fancy  seeks  a  definite  symbol,  or  visible  manifestation 
of  the  Infinite.  This,  to  the  Oriental  mind,  is  found 
in  the  sun,  which  was  adored  by  those  ancient  tribes 
under  the  title  Bel  or  Baal.  As  "  Lord  of  the  hosts 
of  heaven,"  he  was  worshipped  alike  on  the  "  high 
places  "  of  Canaan  and  on  the  plains  of  Shinar,  the 
moon  and  the  five  visible  planets  being  his  attendants. 
The  "  Queen  of  heaven,"  the  great  light  that  ruled 
the  night,  was  the  celestial  symbol  of  Ashera  f  and 
of  Astarte,  by  which  names  the  Syrians  denoted  the 
female  element  in  the  universal  life.  The  royal  Ju- 
piter, called  "  Gad,"  or  the  fortunate,  was  the  starry 
symbol  corresponding  to  Baal,  or  the  sun  ;  and  Yenus, 
the  fair  morning  and  evening  star,  would  in  like 
manner  represent  the  female  companion  deity.  The 
planet  Mercury  may  have  been  most  nearly  identified 
with  the  Earth-god,  represented  variously  by  tlie 
Greeks  as  Dionysus  or  Pan ;  as  Mars,  called  also 
Azazel  or  Typlion,  was  with  the  demon-breath  of 
blasting  and  pestilential  heat.  Last  of  all  the  heav- 
enly host,  the  pale  and  baleful  Saturn  embraced  in 
his  circuit  the  paths  of  all  the  rest,  brooding  like  a 
gloomy  Destmy  upon  the  verge  of  the  outer  dark- 

*  See  Exodus  vi.  3. 

t  This  name  is  ignorantly  rendered   "groves"  (after  the  LXX.) 
throughout  the  Old  Testament.     See  2  Kings  xxi.  7. 


SEVEN  DIVINE  POWERS.  211 

ness.*  This  became  the  especial  symbol  of  the  mys- 
terious El,  —  that  dark  universal  power,  whom  the 
Canaanites  called  by  the  title  Tao,  the  "  Living,"  a 
name  allied  with  the    Hebrew  Jehovah,   and   also, 

ISRA-EL.f 

We  have  thus,  in  the  imperfectly  known  mythology 
of  the  East,  tolerably  clear  traces  of  a  circle  of  at 
least  seven  divine  Powers,  having  each  its  recognized 
heavenly  symbol.  As  the  primitive  adoration  of  the 
stars  or  emblems  is  merged  in  that  of  local  deities,  so 
a  mythological  Person  is  associated  with  each  of  the 
celestial  bodies  thought  to  have  a  peculiar  influence 
on  human  destinies.  The  early  wide-spread  division 
of  time  into  weeks,  after  the  well-marked  courses  of 
the  moon,  assigned  to  each  of  these  powers  its  own 
day.  The  week  began  with  the  festival  of  the  Sun, 
and  closed  with  that  of  the  universal  power,  whose 
heavenly  sign  was  the  outmost  of  the  planets,  — 
known  in  Italy  as  Saturn,  to  the  Greeks  as  all-pro- 
ducing, all-devouring  Time,  in  Palestine  as  Chiun 
or  Remphan,f  and  later,  by  the  name  Sabbatha, 
or  Rest.  This  sevenfold  division  of  time  became 
the  basis  of  the  religious  or  festal  periods,  both 
in  Egypt  and  among  all  the  Oriental  tribes,  —  traces 
of  it  being  found  also  in  the  customs  of  Greece  and 
Rome,  and  even  among  the  barbarous  races  of 
America. 

*  "  Because  of  the  seven  heavenly  bodies  by  which  mortals  are  con- 
trolled, the  star  of  Saturn  is  borne  in  the  loftiest  orbit  and  in  excelling 
might ;  and,  in  general,  the  power  and  the  courses  of  the  celestials  are 
determined  by  the  number  seven,"  —  Tacitus,  Hist.,  V.  4. 

t  Or,  El  the  Prince.  (Compare  Gen.  xxxii.  28.)  Hence,  according 
to  some,  the  designation  "  people  of  Israel." 

J  Amos  V.  26  ;  Acts  vii.  43. 


212  THE   LAW. 

The  attributes  of  the  several  powers  in  this  mythic 
hierarchy  were  gradually  blended  in  the  conception 
of  one  universal  Deity,  known  to  the  Hebrews  under 
the  plural  name  Elohim.*  But  each  nation  would 
doubtless  merge  the  features  of  the  one  Nature- 
God  in  those  of  its  own  special  deity.  Hence  both 
the  attributes  themselves  and  their  celestial  symbols 
are  almost  indifferently  ascribed  to  each,  and  the 
details  of  the  Syrian  mythology  become  inextricably 
confused. 

The  names  above  recited  indicate  that  cycle  of  Syr- 
ian superstitions  by  which  the  Hebrews  were  from 
the  first  surrounded,  and  towards  which,  even  to  the 
last,  they  were  obstinately  prone.  Its  essence  has 
been  called  "  a  pantheistic  nature-worship,  or  adora- 
tion of  the  elements,  sharply  distinguished  from  the 
monotheistic  religion  of  Mosaism."  f  This  was  in 
time  resolved  into  the  elements  symbolized  by  those 
"  powers  of  the  air."  The  distinction  was  at  first 
drawn  only  between  the  male  and  female  divine  or 
elemental  principles,  but  was  wrought  out  by  de- 
grees into  the  elaborate  mythology  which  so  de- 
bauched the  Hebrew  manners  and  fascinated  the 
popular  mind.  Its  crude  and  vague  character  is 
strongly  contrasted  with  the  pronounced  theogony  of 
the  Greeks. 

Of  the  several  divinities,  Bel  (or  Apollo)  and  Ash- 
era  (Cybele,^or  Aphrodite),  as  well   as  Thammuz 

♦  Variously  rendered  in  the  Old  Testament  by  God,  gods,  and  angels. 

\  See  Movers,  "  Die  Phonizer,"  Vol.  I.  But  Comte  says  that  pan- 
theism is  only  "  a  scientific  reconstruction  of  fetichism,"  which  was  in 
fact  the  real  primitive  and  rude  faith. 


BAAL   OR   MOLOCH.  213 

(perhaps  identical  with  the  Earth-god,  or  Dionysusj, 
were  worshipped  especially  with  licentious  rites  ;  all, 
no  doubt,  with  human  sacrifices.  Of  the  bloody  and 
horrible  character  of  the  Syrian  superstition  there  is 
abundant  proof  in  the  Hebrew  writings,  as  well  as 
in  what  is  recounted  respecting  Tyre  and  Carthage 
by  the  Greeks.*  As  Bel,  or  Baal,  represents  the  quick- 
ening splendours  of  the  sun,  so  Moloch — a  word  hav- 
ing the  same  radical  signification  of  lord  or  king  — 
represents  in  that  mythology  his  malignant  and  de- 
structive rays,  or  the  devouring  force  of  flame. 
Nothing  more  seized  and  held  the  imagination  of  the 
shuddering  worshipper  than  the  exulthig  and  eager 
fury  of  the  flame,  as  it  "  leaped  forth  from  the  altar  " 
to  devour  the  sacrifice.  This  quality  is  frightfully 
signified  in  the  elaborate  and  horrid  idols  of  that 
grim  worship  :  sometimes  a  brazen  automaton,  which, 
being  heated  glowing  hot,  sprang  out  to  snatch  from 
the  crowd  its  victim,  with  whom  it  plunged  back  to 
the  blazing  pile  ;  sometimes  a  statue,  whose  out- 
stretched arms  threw  the  offered  child  into  a  fire 
burning  at  its  feet ;  sometimes  a  hollow  figure,  within 
whose  scorching  bosom  the  first-born  infant  was  cast 
to  perish,  while  wild  cries  and  the  beating  of  drums 
drowned  the  voice  alike  of  mother  and  babe.  This 
is  the  worship  dwelt  on  with  sucli  emphasis  and 
images  of  horror  by  the  prophets,  in  their  appeals  in 

*  See  especially,  as  to  the  character  of  this  worship  and  the  im- 
plication of  the  Hebrews  in  it,  2  Kings  xxi.  3  -  9 ;  xxiii.  4  -  14  ;  Psalm 
cvi.  38-40;  Ezekiel  xx.  24-31  ;  Amos  v.  26.  The  last  reference 
seems  to  connect  the  worship  of  Moloch  with  that  of  the  planet 
Saturn. 


214  THE   LAW. 

behalf  of  a  purer  faith.  The  frantic  orgies  of  Cybele 
("  Dea  Syria  "),  and  of  Thammuz,  or  Adonis,  whose 
worship  seems  to  have  had  reference  especially  to  the 
sun  of  early  spring,  belong  to  our  more  familiar  recol- 
lections of  these  religions  of  the  East ;  and,  together 
with  the  horrors  of  human  sacrifice,  subsisted  far 
into  the  era  of  Christianity.  The  vindictive  Power 
symbolized  by  "  the  red  planet  Mars  "  had  his  dwell- 
ing amid  the  fierce  glare  of  the  desert.  He  was 
named  by  the  Egyptians  Typhon,  the  Destroyer,  who 
consumed  the  propitious  overflows  of  Osiris,  or  the 
Nile  ;  and  by  the  Hebrews,  Azazel,  the  rival  of  Jeho- 
vah, to  whom  the  yearly  goat  was  sent  for  expiation 
into  the  wilderness.* 

Two  sacred  annual  seasons  were  set  apart  for  the 
high  solemnities  of  this  elemental  worship :  one  in 
the  opening  spring,  and  one  in  the  autumn,  or  season 
of  vintage.  Both  were  kept  in  the  splendours  of  the 
full  moon,  and  brought  together,  for  a  seven-days' 
festival,  the  population  of  tribes  and  villages.  The 
darker  and  more  jealous  powers  were  invoked  under 
the  impulse  of  that  anxious  and  superstitious  dread 
with  which  men  anticipated  the  possible  disasters  of 
the  new  year  ;  and  their  propitiation  could  be  bought 

*  Mars  was  the  Star  of  Edom  ("  the  Red"),  which  is  also  identified 
with  Azazel, — the  same  malign  power  known  afterwards  as  Sammael, 
or  Satan.  (Eisenmenger,  "  Entdecktes  Judenthura,"  Vol.  I.  pp.  64.5, 
649,  823  ;  Vol.  II.  p.  155.)  The  Egyptian  epithet  of  Typhon  was  Ros, 
or  red.  (Kenrick's  Egypt,  Vol.  11.  p.  157.)  It  is  to  the  ignorance  or 
fancy  of  the  Alexandrians  that  we  are  indebted  for  the  transforming 
of  this  into  the  ritual  conception  of  the  "scape-goat."  Mr.  Gliddon, 
in  the  "Types  of  Mankind,"  makes  the  name  signify  lord  of  death,  in 
contrast  to  Jehovah,  the  lord  of  life. 


FESTIVALS  AND   SACRIFICE.  215 

only  by  the  costly  offering  of  blood.  The  later  sea- 
son brought  the  joyful  festivities  of  the  vintage,  or 
harvest-home.  Thank-offerings  abounded ;  the  exu- 
berant and  teeming  forces  of  nature  were  celebrated 
vrith  riotous  holiday  ;  and  the  occasion  was  the  char- 
acteristic Syrian  one  of  mingled  blood  and  lust. 
These,  with  other  traces  of  antique  custom,  —  as  the 
erection  of  "  Bethels  "  (^BacrvXia),  said  to  have  been 
frequent  among  the  Canaanites,  the  consecration  of 
"  high  places  "  and  groves,  the  "  teraphim,"  or  sacred 
images  (which  have  been  connected  with  the  Egyp- 
tian rites  of  Serapis),  and  sundry  rites  otherwise  un- 
explained, observed  with  respect  to  sacrifice,  —  are 
in  part  alluded  to  in  the  vehement  censures  of  the 
prophets,  in  part  sanctioned  and  adopted  in  the 
Hebrew  ritual  code. 

The  characteristic  rite  of  Sacrifice  seems  to  belong 
to  the  very  earliest  records  of  mankind.  The  story 
of  Cain  and  Abel  already  indicates  the  transition  from 
the  simpler  offering  of  food  to  the  more  sacred  rites 
of  blood.  Its  first  intention  was  to  offer  to  the  Di- 
vinity a  chosen  portion  of  every  gift  with  which  he 
satisfies  human  wants.  The  Altar  was  originally  a 
table,  on  which  food  was  left  to  be  consumed  or  re- 
absorbed by  the  elemental  forces  of  earth  and  air ;  or, 
as  popular  credulity  believed,  to  be  literally  eaten  by 
the  gods.  Hence  it  should  be  prepared  in  the  most 
savoury  way,  and  every  sacrifice  must  be  seasoned 
with  salt.*  The  table  of  shew-bread  is  a  relic  of  this 
simplest  form  of  offering. 

The  active  and  living  force  of  flame  became  the 

*  Leviticus  ii.  13. 


216  THE  LAW. 

obvious  representative  of  the  sun,  or  of  the  vital  en- 
ergy of  nature.  The  altar  from  a  table  became  a 
hearth  ;  and  the  sacred  fire  was  kindled  to  devour  or 
consume  the  sacrifice.  The  more  precious  the  offer- 
ing, the  more  acceptable.  If  fruits  were  used,  they 
must  be  first-fruits  ;  if  grain,  wheat ;  if  other  posses- 
sions, the  fairest  of  their  kind.  What  had  no  human 
ownership  (as  wild  fruits  or  game)  could  make  no 
part  of  the  pious  gift.  The  natural  awe  with  which 
men  first  behold  the  flow  of  blood  was  deepened  by 
the  persuasion  that  it  was  the  peculiar  seat  of  life,  or 
the  life  itself ;  and  when  the  more  costly  gift  of  do- 
mestic animals  was  brought,  "the  blood  that  gushed 
upon  the  ground,  and  the  fire  that  consumed  the 
flesh,  became  the  essential  features  of  the  rite. 

The  victim  of  sacrifice  must  be  an  animal  '*  with- 
out spot  or  blemish,"  —  the  nearer  to  the  affections 
of  human  kind  the  better.  Ascending  in  the  scale  of 
preciousness  or  dignity,  the  religious  feeling  craved 
nothing  less  than  the  sacrifice  of  one's  child,  —  the 
eldest  or  only  child.  The  custom  of  offering  the 
first-born  was  deeply  rooted  in  the  antiquity  of  the 
race.  So  tenaciously  was  it  held,  that  it  is  cited  ex- 
pressly as  the  type  of  the  paschal  lamb ;  it  furnishes 
a  parallel  to  the  religious  thought  of  a  writer  so  late 
as  Micah,  and  an  illustration  to  those  who  spoke  to 
the  Jewish  mind  of  the  sacrifice  of  Christ.*  A  de- 
tailed examination  shows  the  worships  of  ancient 
paganism  as  literally  reeking  with  human  blood. f 

*  Exodus  xiii.  13  ;  Micah  vi.  6  ;  Hebrews  ix.  14. 
t  See  Magee  on  the  Atonement ;  also,  Ghillany,  "  Die  Menschen- 
opfer  der  alten  Hebraer,"  where  the  investigation  is  quite  sufficiently 


HUMAN  SACKIFICE.  217 

Superstitious  frenzy  or  fanaticism,  with  its  cold  cru- 
elty, demanded  it  in  streams.  The  earliest  care  of  a 
humane  lawgiver,  backed  by  priestly  policy,  was  to 
provide  a  substitute.  The  several  forms  of  ascetic 
penance,  the  ancient  tribal  rite  of  circumcision  com- 
mon to  both  Syria  and  Africa,  and,  still  later,  the 
offering  of  a  vicarious  victim,  or  the  payment  of  a 
stipulated  price,  were  the  terms  on  which  this  hor- 
rible flow  of  human  blood  was  stayed. 

Such  were  the  elements  of  Syrian  culture  or  super- 
stition, which  must  be  assumed  as  a  sort  of  ground- 
work in  the  understanding  of  many  features  in  the 
Hebrew  institutions.  They  made,  as  it  were,  an  out- 
lying circle  of  ideas  and  habits,  from  which  the  nation- 
al mind  was  never  completely  guarded  or  divorced. 
How  far  they  were  modified  by  the  sojourn  in  Egypt, 
it  is  impossible  to  say  ;  or  how  far,  within  the  sacred 
family,  they  were  already  outgrown  in  the  patriarchal 
age.  This  at  least  we  see,  that  the  loftier  intelligence 
of  Moses  himself,  combined  with  the  purer  and  diviner 
truth  imparted  to  him  during  his  desert  life,  and  in- 
terpreted by  the  Levitical  priesthood  long  after,  was 
brought  to  bear  on  them,  as  the  religious  material 

carried  out.  In  Rome  human  sacrifices  were  abolished  by  a  decree  of 
the  Senate,  b.  c.  93.  "  But  in  many  expiatory  and  lustral  rites,  the 
shedding  of  a  drop  of  blood  was  retained  as  a  type  of  the  ancient  usage, 
with  which  it  has  frequently  been  confounded."  (Merivale,  Fall  of  the 
Roman  Republic,  p.  119.)  For  the  custom  of  burying  a  human  victim 
"alive  under  every  important  structure,  as  a  propitiatory  sacrifice,"  — 
of  which  an  example  is  given  in  1  Kings  xvi.  34,  in  the  case  of  the  re- 
builder  of  Jericho,  who  "  laid  the  foundation  thereof  in  Abiram  his  first- 
born, and  set  up  the  gate  thereof  in  his  youngest  son  Serug,"  —  see 
Sophocles's  Glossary  of  Later  Greek,  p.  613. 
1*0 


218  THE  LAW. 

already  existing  in  the  popular  mind.  Either  the 
tenacity  with  which  that  shepherd  race  clung  to  its 
ancient  memories,  or  the  revival  of  old  instincts  and 
associations  by  the  contact  of  friendly  tribes  during 
the  desert  wandering,  or  the  alliances  and  compro- 
mise that  succeeded  the  unfinished  slaughter  of  the 
Canaanites,  made  a  thousand  points  of  contact  be- 
tween Hebrew  faith  and  alien  customs ;  and  the 
antique  Syrian  superstition  furnishes  the  warp  upon 
wliich  the  nobler  people  wove  the  pattern  of  its  re- 
ligious history. 

It  is  not  merely  in  remote  antiquity,  but  down  to 
the  most  recent  period  preceding  the  Captivity,  that 
the  rites  and  customs  just  described  were  familiar 
and  influential  among  the  Hebrews.  We  find  the 
earlier  traces  of  them  in  the  story  of  Isaac,  the  narra- 
tive of  Jephthah's  daughter,  and  the  religious  slaugh- 
ter of  Agag  at  the  hands  of  Samuel,  with  others 
which  an  over-curious  criticism  has  found  or  fancied. 
We  find  frequent  mention  of  the  rites  of  Baal,  Mo- 
loch, and  Astarte  in  the  annals  of  the  kings,  and  in 
the  undiscriminating  censures  of  the  prophets.  Even 
at  Jerusalem,  the  head-quarters  of  the  priesthood, 
there  was  a  "  vale  of  Tophet,"  where  Ahaz  and  Ma- 
nasseh  made  their  children  "  pass  through  the  fire  to 
Moloch."  And  nothing  seems  more  clearly  shown  in 
the  history  than  that  the  milder  Hebrew  institutions, 
as  we  know  them,  contended  at  a  disadvantage,  and 
but  very  slowly  did  away  what  was  worst  of  native 
and  local  superstition. 

The  narrative  of  the  Conquest  represents  the  race 
as  just  emerging  from  a  nomadic  state,  the  period  of 


SETTLEMENT  IN   CANAAN.  219 

the  "  Wandering,"  and  gaining  by  force  of  arms  half- 
possession  of  a  comparatively  fertile,  populous,  and 
civilized  district.  It  is  at  this  period  that  the  history 
of  the  nation,  properly  speaking,  may  be  said  to 
begin.  Its  numbers,  to  judge  from  all  we  know, 
could  hardly  at  any  time  before  the  monarchy  have 
exceeded  half  a  million,  and  in  the  earher  period 
must  have  been  much  less.*  Apparently  they  car- 
ried with  them  the  modes  of  life  characteristic  of 
their  nomadic  state.  At  the  time  of  Deborah,  we 
hear  of  no  fixed  habitations,  only  of  tents  and  sheep- 
folds,  though  many  of  the  conquerors  would  no  doubt 
occupy  the  deserted  villages  of  the  Canaanites ;  and 
in  the  eastern  districts  this  was  the  way  of  life  until 
the  devastations  of  Hazael,  two  centuries  after  the 
time  of  David. t  The  people  were  so  destitute  of 
the  arts  of  industry,  that  to  repair  their  tools  they 
must  go  to  the  Philistine  workshops.  They  had  no 
equipment  to  compete  with  the  chariots  and  armour 
of  the  Canaanites.  Saul  and  his  son  are  even  said 
to  have  been  the  only  Hebrews  armed  with  sword 
or  spear ;  and  Shamgar's  sole  weapon  was  an  "  ox- 
goad."  J  The  horse  was  never  fairly  naturalized  in 
Israel,  though  part  of  the  equipage  of  David's  and 
Solomon's  royalty.  As  among  some  Eastern  tribes 
at  the  .present  day,  bullocks  or  cows  were  used  for 

*  Perhaps  the  prodigious  numbers  we  find  in  Exodus,  as  well  as 
Chronicles,  may  be  ascribed  to  the  vastly  greater  scale  of  population 
which  the  Jews  found  in  Babylon.  They  contrast  curiously  with  the 
slender  census  of  the  new  colony  of  Judaea,  recording  contemporary 
fact. 

t  See  Joshua  xxii.  6  ;  Judges  v.  24,  xx.  8  ;  2  Kings  xiii.  5. 

t  1  Samuel  xiii.  18-23  ;  Judges  iii.  31. 


220  THE  LAW. 

draught.  In  travelling,  or  on  state  occasions,  the 
ass  or  mule  was  characteristic  of  the  Hebrews  till  a 
late  day,  and  became  a  symbol  of  the  peaceful  reign 
of  the  Messiah.*  As  a  token  of  the  thinly  settled 
and  distracted  condition  of  the  country,  even  in  the 
time  of  the  monarchy,  wild  beasts  seem  to  have  been 
very  numerous.  Single  encounter  with  a  lion  was  a 
frequent  test  of  Hebrew  championship,  as  shown 
in  the  stories  of  Samson,  David,  and  Benaiah ;  the 
boys  who  mocked  Elisha  were  torn  by  bears ;  and 
the  new  settlers  of  Samaria,  after  the  Ninevite  con- 
quest, found  that  most  fertile  district  of  Palestine  so 
overrun  by  wild  beasts  as  to  be  almost  uninhabitable. 
It  is  not  till  the  latter  part  of  David's  reign  that  we 
find  any  trace  of  the  wealth  attributed  to  the  patri- 
archs, the  Canaanites,  and  even  to  the  emigrant 
horde  in  the  desert.  Remnants  of  the  conquered 
populations  still  made,  apparently,  the  majority  of 
the  inhabitants  of  Palestine.  The  stronghold  of 
the  Jebusites  was  first  subdued  by  Joab,  and  the 
Hebrew  nationality  had  not  undisputed  dominion  till 
the  time  of  Solomon.  So  that,  through  the  earlier 
portion  of  their  history,  the  tribes  of  Israel  exhibit 
the  condition  of  a  sparse  nomadic  population,  dwell- 
ing almost  at  random  among  a  wealthier,  more  nu- 
merous, and  more  cultivated  people,  which  they  had 
only  half  subdued. 

This  condition  of  things  easily  explains  the  confu- 
sion we  find  between  Hebrew  faith  and  alien  super- 
stitions, as  well  as  the  late  development  of  the  true 
Hebrew  culture.     It  is  only  as  they  existed  in  their 

*  Zechariah  ix.  9 


HEBREW  NATIONAL   FAITH.  221 

maturity  that  we  can  well  understand  the  Mosaic 
institutions  ;  only  by  an  effort  of  imagination  that 
we  can  discern  their  effect  on  the  mind  and  temper 
of  the  earlier  time.*  In  their  completed  form,  they 
yet  retained  distinctness  enough  of  primitive  feature 
to  let  us  trace  their  parentage  or  alliances.  While 
they  were  interpreted  to  accord  with  a  higher  circle 
of  ideas,  and  spiritualized  in  the  long  ages  of  the 
nation's  life,  their  Jewish  expomiders  often  show 
unconscious  traces  of  those  immemorial  rites  and 
superstitions  from  which  they  were  so  slowly  and 
painfully  divorced  ;  and  the  Hebrew  Scriptures 
abound  in  the  same  disguised  and  lurking  evi- 
dence. 

But  with  the  first  distinct  assertion  of  Hebrew 
nationality  we  find  indications  of  the  spirit  which, 
working  through  the  prophets,  so  powerfully  affected 
the  nation's  mind  for  good.  The  earliest  relics  of 
Hebrew  song  or  story,  dating  at  least  as  high  as  the 
age  of  the  Judges,  accord  well  enough  with  the  deep 
reverence  and  exalted  conception  associated  always 
with  that  people's  thought  of  God.  The  Song  of 
Deborah,  or  the  Oracle  of  Jacob,  contains  no  trace  of 
the  hideous  and  bloody  superstition  of  the  Canaan- 
ites.  As  surely  as  it  was  an  expression  of  the  mind 
of  that  early  age,  so  surely  it  compels  us  to  think  of 
Israel  as  already  well  advanced  beyond  the  neigh- 
bouring idolatries,  or  the  gross  formalism  of  Egypt. 
Elevation  of  the  religious  thought,  culture  of  the 
religious  affection,  and  development  of  the  religious 
life  are  vindicated,  as   from  the   first  the   peculiar 

*  See  page  51. 


222  THE   LAW. 

office  of  this  people  in  history.  The  circumstances 
which  led  to  the  ascendency  of  the  priesthood  under 
Eli,  and  the  systematic  prophetic  culture  instituted 
by  Samuel,  have  been  before  noticed.*  We  have 
now  to  consider  what  was  characteristic  in  the  He- 
brew institutions  as  found  in  their  mature  form, 
probably  in  the  more  flourishing  period  of  the  Mon- 
archy. 

The  essential  features  of  the  religious  and  civil 
polity  have  already  been  so  far  indicated  as  was 
necessary  to  a  clear  understanding  of  the  foregoing 
history .f  To  aid  in  interpreting  the  Jewish  Scrip- 
tures, as  well  as  in  tracing  the  influence  of  this 
people  upon  after  forms  of  religious  thought,  we 
have  to  consider,  further,  a  few  details  of  the  Civil 
Code,  the  Ritual,  and  the  Religious  Year,  or  cycle 
of  national  Religious  Festivals. 

I.  Civil  Code.  This  includes  the  rights  of  Per- 
son, Property,  and  Family ;  and  the  charge  of  public 
Health. 

As  the  basis  of  personal  right,  the  Law  assumes 
the  inviolability  of  human  life.  This  it  sanctions 
by  the  mysterious  sacredness  of  blood  (Gen.  ix.  6  ; 
Num.  XXXV.  33),  by  the  claim  of  brotherhood  (Lev. 
xix.  17),  and  by  the  solemn  penalties  of  the  code 
(Lev.  xxiv.  17).  The  old  instincts  or  customs  of 
the  Tribe  demanded  that  the  nearest  relative  of  a 
slain  man  should  hunt  down  the  murderer,  and 
exact  life  for  life.  This  is  an  imperative  point  of 
honour  among  a  rude  and  primitive  people,  let  the 
cause  of  death  be  accident,  quarrel,  or  wilful  mur- 

*  See  pages  95  -  98,  102.  f  See  pages  50  -  59. 


CIVIL   CODE.  223 

der;*  and  so  a  single  chance  death  might  breed  a 
blood-stain  which  generations  would  not  wash  out. 
The  "  avenger  of  blood"  had  his  recognized  com- 
mission among  the  Hebrews  (Num.  xxxv.  19  ;  Deut. 
xix.  12),  restricted  only  by  appointing  "cities  of 
refuge,"  where  the  involuntary  offender  might  be 
safe.  As  by  the  old  law  of  Athens,  what  caused  a 
man's  death  was  accursed,  whether  man  or  beast. 
No  money  compensation  could  be  given.  (Num.  xxxv. 
31,  33.)  The  vicious  ox  must  die ;  his  owner, 
too,  if  the  creature  was  of  vicious  habit.  (Ex.  xxi. 
28,  29.)  A  fatal  accident  left  the  stain  of  blood  on 
the  house  where  it  befell.  (Deut.  xxii.  8.)  Only  the 
sacred  limits  of  the  city  of  refuge  could  shelter  the 
involuntary  homicide  (Num.  xxxv.  26)  ;  and  a  re- 
markable ceremony  is  detailed  by  which  the  magis- 
trates of  a  city,  washing  their  hands  over  a  heifer 
beheaded  in  a  desolate  ravine,  should  clear  them- 
selves of  the  guilt  of  murder  done  there,  if  the 
author  of  it  could  not  be  found.  (Deut.  xxi.  1  -  8.) 
In  a  similar  spirit,  the  elder  law  granted  "  breach 
for  breach,  eye  for  eye,  tooth  for  tooth."  (Lev.  xxiv. 
30;  Ex.  xxi.  23-25.)  It  was  the  humanity  of  a 
later  code  that  commuted  the  penalty  afterwards  for 
a  fine. 

The  penalty  of  death  is  assumed  in  a  primitive 
code  as  the  one  sanction  of  violated  law,  —  as  it  was 
in  Athens  under  Draco,  and  as  it  is  said  to  be  now  in 
Japan.  Slighter  penalties  are  in  theory  a  substitute 
or  commutation.  Among  the  Hebrews,  this  commu- 
tation for  lesser  offences  might  be  disfranchisement, 

*  Genesis  ix.  5.    See  Layard's  "  Babylon  and  Nineveh,"  p.  305. 


224  THE   LAW. 

fine,  or  a  sin-ofFering.  Scourging  was  rarely  inflicted, 
as  against  tlie  dignity  of  a  freeman  ;  and  in  any  case 
might  not  exceed  forty  stripes  (Deut.  xxv.  3), 
"  lest  thy  brother  should  seem  vile  unto  thee."  Im- 
prisonment seems  to  have  been  unknown  until  the 
latter  portion  of  the  monarchy. 

The  original  right  of  property  lay  not  in  the  indi- 
vidual, but  in  the  family,  —  the  natural  assignment 
of  what  was  got  by  conquest.  The  family  derived 
its  title  from  the  tribe  or  state ;  this,  again,  directly 
from  Jehovah.  The  family  estate  was  in  theory  in- 
alienable, and  must  revert  to  the  original  holder,  or 
his  descendants,  at  least  as  often  as  once  in  fifty 
years.  If  forfeited  by  debt  or  suretyship  in  the 
mean  time,  it  was  still  subject  to  the  right  of  re- 
demption. (Num.  xxvii.  8.)  The  eldest  son  had 
a  double  share  of  the  inheritance  (Deut.  xxi.  17)  ; 
and  along  with  it,  doubtless,  the  duty  of  maintain- 
ing the  orphans  and  widows  of  the  household.  Still 
further  to  secure  the  same  end,  a  daughter  could 
marry  only  in  her  own  tribe  (Num.  xxxvi.  8)  ; 
and,  dying  childless,  she  left  her  inheritance  to  her 
brother.  No  interest  money  might  be  taken  from  a 
Hebrew  (Ex.  xxii.  25 ;  Deut.  xxiii.  19)  ;  and  no 
absolute  purchase  of  land  could  be  made,  except  a 
homestead  in  a  walled  town  (Lev.  xxv.  29,  30). 
These  regulations,  it  is  needless  to  say,  underwent 
some  change  when  the  bulk  of  property  was  no 
longer  in  land,  but  in  the  trades  and  estates  of 
cities. 

Restricted  as  was  the  claim  of  personal  property, 
within  these  limits  it  was  absolute.     Stolen  goods 


SLAVERY.  225 

must  be  restored  double,  —  in  some  cases,  four  or 
five  fold.  (Ex.  xxii.  1-4.)  The  penalty  of  kidnap- 
ping was  death.  (Ex.  xxi.  16.)  The  indorser  shared 
the  liabilitj  of  him  he  was  surety  for.  (Prov. 
xxii.  26,  27.)  The  debtor  was  at  the  mercy  of  his 
creditor,  and  probably  became  his  slave  (2  Kings 
iv.  1 ;  Prov.  xxii.  7),  according  to  the  barbarous 
custom,  or  common  law,  of  antiquity.  So,  too,  cap- 
tives spared  in  war.  (Josh.  ix.  21.)  Slaves  pur- 
chased from  among  neighbouring  tribes  (Lev.  xxv. 
44-46)  became  "bondmen  forever,"  and  a  "prop- 
erty inheritance  to  children." 

Among  the  Hebrews  themselves  slavery  was  greatly 
lightened.  Religious  fellowship  and  privilege  were 
still  recognized  (Deut.  xvi.  10,  11)  ;  the  mutilated 
slave  went  free  (Ex.  xxi.  27)  ;  if  a  fugitive,  he 
might  not  be  rendered  back  (Deut.  xxiii.  15)  ;  he 
had  the  right  of  purchasing  his  ransom,  and  the 
certainty  of  being  free  after  six  years  of  service 
(Ex.  xxi.  2).  Thus,  retaining  many  of  the  harsh 
features  of  ancient  law,  the  Hebrew  code  did  very 
much  to  mitigate  the  bondman's  bitter  lot.  It  re- 
calls the  time  when  the  whole  people  was  captive 
in  a  strange  land  :  and  makes  the  hardship  of  the 
past  a  plea  for  humanity  in  the  future.  (Lev.  xxv. 
43 ;  Deut.  xv.  15,  22,  xviii.  22,  xxvi.  5.) 

The  right  of  the  Family,  as  the  sacred  centre  of 
the  life  of  the  state,  was  guarded  with  peculiar  care. 
Its  prototype  was  found  in  the  scrupulous  severity 
of  patriarchal  rule.  Honour  to  the  aged  was  sedu- 
lously enjoined.  (Ex.  xix.  32.)  The  wife's  honour 
(Lev.  XX.  10)  and  the  child's  obedience  (Deut. 
10*  o 


226  THE  LAW. 

xxi.  18)  were  enforced  by  the  same  sharp  penalty 
of  death.  Widows  and  orphans  were  a  sacred  charge 
to  the  community.  (Ex.  xxii.  22.)  A  man  might 
nullify  his  wife's  religious  vow  (Num.  xxx.  8),  or 
sell  his  children  into  bondage  (Ex.  xxi.  7).  The 
spirit  of  the  Hebrew  law  restrained  the  license  of 
polygamy  and  divorce  (Ex.  xxi.  10 ;  Deut  xxii. 
19,  xxiv.  11),  though  yielding,  in  this  as  in  other 
matters,  to  a  sovereign's  wilfulness  or  policy,  or  the 
sanction  of  earlier  customs. 

Of  these  was  the  custom  of  "  levirate  marriage," 
by  which  (as  among  several  Eastern  nations)  a  child- 
less widow  might  demand  of  her  husband's  brother 
to  marry  her,  and  so  keep  unbroken  the  family  inher- 
itance. If  he  refused,  she  drew  off  his  sandal  and 
spat  "  to  his  face,"  as  a  ceremony  of  contempt 
(Deut.  XXV.  5-10),  and  his  refusal  became  a  stand- 
ing reproach  upon  his  house.  The  remarkable  or- 
deal of  "jealousy"  (Num.  v.  12-31),  and  the  for- 
bidding of  impure  rites  (Lev.  xvii.  7,  xx.  2-5),  are 
evidence  of  both  the  spirit  and  the  circumstances  of 
the  Hebrew  family  code.  Its  general  effect,  however 
we  may  interpret  it  in  detail,  was  to  assign  to  the 
women  of  Israel  a  far  nobler  influence  and  higher 
social  rank  than  we  find  them  holding  among  most 
other  Asiatic  peoples. 

Lastly,  the  civil  code  assumed  a  religious  sanction 
in  guarding  the  paramount  public  interest  of  Health. 
Food,  popular  customs,  and  the  diseases  of  the  cli- 
mate, were  all  put  under  regulations  that  made  part 
of  the  religion  itself.  What  was  unwholesome  was 
stigmatized  as  "  unclean,"  as  well  as  certain  customs 


CARE   OF   HEALTH.  227 

of  desert  or  city  life,  from  which  the  state  of  Israel 
was  to  be  strictly  kept  apart.  Fruit  of  the  first 
three  years'  bearing  was  called  "  uncircumcised," 
and  might  not  be  eaten  ;  that  of  the  fourth  year 
was  to  be  made  a  religious  offering.  (Lev.  xix. 
23-25.)  The  brutish  and  loathsome  habits  that 
belong  to  nomadic  hordes  were  well  guarded  against 
by  the  simple,  intelligible  precept,  to  eat  no  greasy, 
bloody,  "  dead,"  or  mangled  flesh  (Lev.  vii.  23  ;  xi. 
32  ;  xxii.  8)  ;  and  to  take  as  food  such  creatures 
only  as  "  part  the  hoof  and  chew  the  cud,"  together 
with  a  restricted  list  of  birds  and  fishes.  No  vege- 
table diet  was  condemned  as  unclean,  —  a  sufficient 
indication  that  the  motive  of  the  law  was  sanitary, 
not  superstitious. 

From  the  same  motive,  a  dead  body  could  not  be 
touched  witliout  incurring  seven  days'  "  unclean- 
ness"  and  the  grateful  ritual  of  a  bath,  lest  perhaps 
there  should  be  danger  of  contagion.*  Mutilation 
of  every  sort  was  prohibited,  as  well  as  any  mixture 
of  breed  in  plant  or  animal  (Lev.  xix.  19)  ;  and  an 
obscure  kindred  feeling  forbade  dam  and  young  to 
be  killed  on  the  same  day  (Lev.  xxii.  28),  or  a  kid 
to  be  "  seethed  in  its  mother's  milk."  (Ex.  xxxiv. 
26.)  The  first  symptom  of  the  enervating  and  de- 
structive diseases  of  a  hot  climate  was  met  by  the 
same  vigilant  precaution.  (Lev.  chap,  xv.)  Espe- 
cially leprosy  —  that  frightful  plague  by  which  (to 
trust  the  tenor  of  tradition)  the  Jews  in  Egypt  had 
been  almost  universally  cursed,  and  whicli  was  only 

=*  See  the  law  respecting  the  "water  of  separation."  (Num.  xix. 
1-22.) 


228  THE  LAW. 

partially  worn  away  by  the  stern  regimen  of  Moses 
—  was  watched  with  a  certain  terror  by  the  Hebrew 
sanitary  cojje.  (Lev.  chap,  xiii.)  Its  first  ominous, 
angry  swelling  was  carefully  noted  by  the  priests ;  its 
course  was  duly  reported  to  them  at  certain  inter- 
vals;  and,  when  beyond  their  pharmacy,  its  victim 
was  pitilessly  banished  from  all  human  intercourse.* 
Cruelty  to  him  was  the  only  security  to  the  rest. 

II.  Ritual.  The  Hebrew  state  was  a  theocracy. 
Its  civil  law  was  merged  in  ecclesiastical  or  ritual 
law,  which  gave  it  character  and  sanction.  From 
infancy  through  life  every  person  was  subject  to  its 
vigilant  guardianship.  The  ritual,  accordingly,  in 
its  broader  sense,  comprehended  a  large  part  of  the 
civil  law,  particularly  that  which  had  in  charge  the 
public  health.  It  appointed  seasons  and  forms  of 
prayer,  and  a  thousand  details  of  ceremonial.  It 
prescribed  the  rank  of  the  priesthood,  and  the  rules 
of  expiatory  sacrifice,  or  fine,  —  such  as  the  "ran- 
som "  for  the  census.  (Ex.  xxxviii.  12.)  By 
far  the  greater  portion  of  it  becomes  a  matter  of 
mere  antiquarian  curiosity.  What  is  most  charac- 
teristic in  it,  and  essential  to  a  right  interpreting  of 
Hebrew  thought  and  custom,  is  that  which  concerns 
the  rites  of  Circumcision  and  Sacrifice. 

The  rite  of  Circumcision  —  common  to  most  of 
the  Syrian  and  several  African  tribes  f  —  was  of  the 

*  See  too  the  law  respecting  "  leprosy/'  or  unwholesome  mould,  in 
the  walls  of  a  house.     (Lev.  xiv.  34.) 

t  Among  tlie  Phoenicians  it  was  a  rite  of  consecration  to  Saturn. 
(Movers,  in  Winer.)  It  was  regai-ded  in  later  ages  as  a  sacrifice  to 
Satan  of  that  which  is  his  peculiar  share  in  the  human  body.  (Eisen- 
menger,  Vol.  I.  p.  673.) 


CIRCUMCISION.  —  SACRIFICE.  229 

nature  of  a  bloody  sacrifice  (Ex.  iv.  24-26),  ex- 
piatory, and,  in  its  first  sense,  a  substitute  for  the 
infant's  life.  It  was  performed  at  the  ^ge  of  eight 
days,  and  was  the  initiation  into  the  religious  com- 
munity. Hence  it  became  a  mark  of  exclusive  privi- 
lege and  sanctity,  and  it  is  always  alluded  to  as  the 
particular  badge  of  the  '*  chosen  people."  Its  sanitary 
use  in  that  climate  is  well  understood,  and  was  doubt- 
less had  in  view  by  those  who  engrafted  it  upon  the 
customs  of  the  race.  In  later  time  it  came  to  be 
regarded  as  a  special  sacrifice  to  the  evil  spirit,  and 
a  special  consecration  to  Jehovah ;  and  it  formed  the 
test  question  of  the  divorce  between  Judaism  and 
Christianity. 

The  rite  of  Sacrifice  was  administered  with  many 
forms  borrowed  from  Egyptian  or  Syrian  usage,  or 
from  immemorial  custom  ;  but  was  invested  with  a 
significance  and  an  elaborate  detail  of  ceremonial 
quite  peculiar  to  the  Hebrews.  Its  simplest  form 
and  meaning  were  recalled  by  the  Table,  which  stood 
at  the  side  of  the  sanctuary  towards  the  north  (Ex. 
xxvi.  35),  where  the  peculiar  habitation  of  the  Deity 
was  of  old  supposed  to  be.  Upon  it  were  piled  twelve 
loaves  of  "  shew-bread,"  strewn  with  incense  (Lev. 
xxiv.  5),  —  his  perpetual  food,  —  which  were  ex- 
changed each  week,  the  old  loaves  being  eaten  by  the 
priests.  In  distinction  from  more  costly  gifts,  flour 
and  oil  were  even  in  later  time  called  the  "  meat- 
offering," or  gift  of  food.*  Libations  of  wine  or 
water  are  a  further  example  of  the  same  general 
meaning. 

*  Leviticus  ii.  1.     See  Palfrey's  Lectures,  Vol.  L  p.  245. 


230  THE  LAW. 

The  Altar,  originally  of  earth  or  stone,  unprofaned 
by  any  tool  (Ex.  xx.  24,  25),  was  the  hearth-stone 
and  sacred, centre  of  the  religion.  Its  holy  fire  was 
the  especial  symbol  of  the  living  presence  of  the  De- 
ity. The  fire  must  be  always  burning  (Lev.  vi.  13)  ; 
and  no  day  or  night  should  pass  without  the  custom- 
ary oJBfering,  for  thanksgiving  or  expiation.  Fire  and 
Blood  were  the  two  emblems  inseparable  from  the 
more  solemn  forms  of  service,  —  fire  as  the  symbol  of 
Divinity,  and  blood  as  the  seat  of  life.  Blood  could 
not  be  lawfully  touched  or  used  as  food.  (Lev.  vii.  27.) 
No  pious  man  would  stain  himself  with  that  which 
was  the  peculiar  share  of  the  Lord  of  life.  It  was 
"  blood  that  made  atonement  for  the  soul "  (Lev.  xvii. 
11),  according  to  the  maxim,  "  life  for  life."  If  not 
sprinkled  on  the  altar,  by  the  requirement  of  the  rit- 
ual, it  must  be  shed  on  the  ground  "  like  water." 
(Deut.  xii.  16.) 

In  the  earlier  time,  it  was  not  lawful  to  taste  of 
any  food  of  which  a  part  should  not  have  been  offered 
in  sacrifice.  The  first  sheaf  of  harvest,  and  a  partic- 
ular portion  of  each  slain  beast,  must  be  brought  to 
the  altar  as  a  "  wave-offering  "  or  "  heave-offering  ;  " 
and,  unless  burnt,  as  in  some  particular  cases  (Ex. 
xxix.  25),  became  the  perquisite  of  the  priest.  (Lev. 
ii.  12  ;  Num.  xviii.  8.)  In  the  dark  religious  terror 
roused  by  the  sense  of  guilt  or  sudden  calamity,  or 
strange  natural  events,  no  gift  seemed  too  costly  to  al- 
lay the  Divine  wrath.  The  most  elaborate  ceremonial 
of  the  sin-offering  did  but  provide  satisfaction  for  that 
craving  instinct  so  deeply  implanted  in  the  religious 
constitution  of  that  primitive  age,  which  sought  to  be 


BURNT-OFFERING.  231 

appeased  even  by  the  hideous  sacrifice  of  children  on 
the  altar  of  heathen  deities. 

The  general  name  "  burnt-oifering "  denotes  the 
original  and  essential  rite,  which  consisted  in  the 
utter  renunciation  to  the  Deity  of  some  object  valu- 
able and  dear  to  man.  This  was  at  all  times  insep- 
arable from  the  Hebrew  ceremonial.  It  was  the  daily 
night  and  morning  service  of  the  sanctuary ;  and  ac- 
companied or  made  part  of  every  other  form  of  offer- 
ing. The  daily  victim  (Ex.  xxix.  39)  was  a  lamb ; 
on  the  Sabbath  two  lambs.  Rams  and  goats  were 
slain  for  special  services ;  and  the  noblest  offering 
of  all  was  a  bullock,  —  which  with  the  Hebrews,  as 
among  various  other  nations,  was  made  the  repre- 
sentative of  certain  attributes  of  the  Deity,  as  we  see 
in  the  imagery  of  the  prophets.  Game  and  the  like, 
not  being  property,  could  not  be  brought  for  sacrifice, 
only  these  domestic  creatures ;  and  the  habit  of  sym- 
pathy with  them  among  a  pastoral  people  must  be 
taken  into  the  account  in  estimating  their  fitness  to 
represent  man's  penitence  and  supplication.  The 
only  birds  esteemed  fit  for  sacrifice  were  doves  or 
pigeons  (Lev.  v.  7)  ;  in  a  single  instance  a  sparrow 
(Lev.  xiv.  14).  The  only  relic  of  the  rite  among  the 
modern  Jews  is  the  slaying  of  a  cock  or  hen. 

The  animal  in  all  cases  was  duly  inspected,  to  as- 
certain if  it  were  sound  and  fit ;  then  slain  on  the 
north  side  of  the  altar,  the  priest's  hands  being  first 
laid  upon  its  head,  as  a  solemn  form  of  expiation  or 
"  atonement."  (Lev.  i.  3, 4, 11 ;  xxii.  20.)  The  blood 
was  caught  in  a  sacred  dish  and  sprinkled  on  the 
altar-stones,  —  the  most  essential  feature  of  the  rite. 


232  THE  LAW. 

The  flesh  was  divided  in  a  particular  way  and  burned  ; 
reserving  ''  the  wave-breast  and  heave-shoulder,"  to- 
gether with  the  hide  (Lev.  vii.  8,  34),  as  the  per- 
quisite of  the  priest.  In  rare  cases  the  victim  was 
totally  consumed  by  fire,  and  became  the  "  whole 
burnt-offering."  While  the  ceremony  proceeded, 
those  who  partook  in  the  service  "  compassed  the 
altar "  in  sacred  procession,  with  a  chant  or  hymn. 
Incense  was  employed  to  mitigate  the  "  sweet  savour  " 
of  the  burning  flesh,  and  came  by  such  use  to  have  a 
sacredness  of  its  own,  so  that  it  might  not  be  prepared 
for  private  use.  (Ex.  xxx.  37.)  If  wheat  was  burned 
instead  of  flesh,  a  certain  proportion  of  olive-oil  (Num. 
XV.  1)  was  essential  to  its  value  as  a  symbol  or  sub- 
stitute for  the  more  costly  gift. 

The  "  peace-offering "  was  the  first  and  simplest 
form  of  the  stated  sacrifice,  being  either  the  fulfil- 
ment of  a  vow,  or  a  service  of  gratitude  for  the 
divine  favour.  (Lev.  iii.  1 ;  vii.  12.)  In  its  original 
sense  it  was  a  banquet,  of  which  man  partook  as  a 
guest  of  his  divinity.  It  demanded  a  less  scrupulous 
inspection  of  the  victim,  and  permitted  the  use  of 
leavened  bread.  It  was  not  a  required  act,  but 
purely  voluntary.  (Lev.  xix.  5.)  When  private 
altars  made  part  of  each  family  establishment,  it  is 
likely  that  every  animal  slain  for  food  was  "  offered  " 
at  the  altar,  the  head  of  the  household  acting  as 
priest.  (Lev.  xvii.  3,  4.)  Thus  Saul,  as  the  head 
of  the  people,  built  a  hasty  altar  of  stones,  lest  his 
famished  troops  should  do  violence  to  the  ancient 
sanctity.  (1  Sam.  xiv.  33-35.)  In  later  times, 
when  the  ritual  belonged  exclusively  to  the  temple 


SIN-OFFERING. 

at  Jerusalem,  the  thank-offering  became  an  occa- 
sional thing,  and  often  a  banquet  to  the  poor,  like 
the  costly  pomp  of  sacrifice  exhibited  by  Solomon 
and  Josiah.  It  could  be  partaken  only  by  those 
legally  pure ;  and  what  the  multitude  of  guests  did 
not  consume  was  destroyed  within  three  days  by  fire. 
(Lev.  vii.  18,  21.) 

The  sin  and  trespass-offerings  made  the  second 
marked  feature  of  the  ritual.  It  has  been  called  the 
"  night-side  "  of  the  ceremonial,  —  a  mournful  and 
solitary  rite,  —  a  single  victim  being  slain,  with  sad 
formalities,  to  restore  the  broken  harmony  between 
man  and  God. 

The  "sin-offering"  (Lev.,  chap,  iv.,  v.)  was  the 
expiation  of  that  whole  sum  of  offences  which  a  man 
or  a  people  has  committed  ignorantly ;  or,  in  some 
cases,  of  ritual  impurity.  (Lev.  xii.  6.)  Its  origin 
was  in  that  vague  feeling  of  guilt  which  refers  all 
natural  calamity  to  human  fault,  —  a  feeling  consti- 
tutionally strong  and  perpetually  worked  on  among 
the  Hebrews,  and  leading  to  most  costly  and  solemn 
acts  of  propitiation.  By  the  usual  form,  —  the  laying 
on  of  hands,  —  the  sin  to  be  atoned  for  was  first  laid 
upon  the  creature's  head,  which  thenceforth  became 
"  most  holy,"  or  wholly  devoted  to  Jehovah.  A  spe- 
cial provision  required  that  in  certain  cases  a  part 
should  be  eaten  by  the  priest  (Lev.  vi.  28 ;  x.  16)  ; 
otherwise,  the  blood  only  was  sprinkled  for  expiation 
or  poured  in  a  pool  about  the  altar,  and  the  body 
burned  whole  in  some  place  outside  the  consecrated 
ground.  For  priest  or  people  a  bullock  must  be 
slain ;  for  a  ruler,  a  male  kid  ;  for  a  private  offender, 


234  THE   LAW. 

a  female  kid  or  lamb  ;  but  the  poor  might  offer  "  two 
turtle-doves  or  two  young  pigeons  ;  "  and  for  the  very 
poor  a  measure  of  fine  flour  without  oil  or  incense 
was  the  substitute. 

The  "  trespass-offering "  was  for  special  known 
offences,  or  for  ritual  impurity.  (Lev.  v.  6,  17.) 
Besides  the  legal  penalty,  or  restitution  (Lev.  vi.  4), 
this  ritual  was  necessary  to  expiate  the  religious 
guilt  of  the  offence.  It  was  purely  private  and  per- 
sonal in  its  character.  Its  end  was  to  restore  to  the 
Hebrew  the  spiritual  privilege  he  had  forfeited  by 
crime  ;  and  the  victim  corresponds  to  the  less  costly 
form  of  sin-offering.  These  two  constituted  the  chief 
resource  of  that  ritual  discipline,  which  was  so  sedu- 
lously employed  in  the  training  of  the  Hebrew  con- 
science. 

III.  Festivals.  The  institution  of  the  Sabbath, 
or  weekly  holiday,  has  already  been  noticed  as  a  fea- 
ture in  the  primitive  Syrian  worship,  —  the  seventh 
day  of  the  week  being  especially  consecrated  to  the 
worship  of  the  universal  Deity.  Adopting  the  cus- 
tom, the  Hebrew  law  engrafted  on  it  its  own  more 
spiritual  uses.  In  its  first  sense,  it  was  simply  a  day 
of  rest.  Its  sanction  refers  to  the  repose  of  God  after 
the  six  days'  work  of  creation  (Ex.  xx.  11)  or  of 
Israel,  after  Egyptian  bondage.  (Deut.  v.  15.)  This 
feature  of  it  is  reproduced  and  enforced  by  the  hu- 
mane provision  of  the  law.  It  is  fortified  with  the 
most  stringent  enactments  ;  its  violation  chastised  by. 
the  penalty  of  death.  (Num.  xv.  32-36.)  The  day 
was  especially  Jehovah's  day  ;  its  profanation  was 
sacrilege  or  rebellion.     Being  assigned  also  for  spe- 


SABBATH  MONTH  AND  SABBATH  YEAR.     235 

cial  rites  of  expiation,  in  connection  with  the  greater 
festivals,  it  speedily  gathered  holy  associations  of  its 
own.  It  became  a  season  not  of  idleness  or  holiday 
merely,  but  of  religious  instruction  and  reminis- 
cences. The  services  of  the  sanctuary  were  made 
more  solemn  by  a  stated  '*  whole  burnt-offering,"  and 
twice  the  complement  of  the  daily  sacrifice.  Its 
sanctity  was  even  enhanced  by  the  lapse  of  time. 
The  later  Jews  would  perish  rather  than  profane  the 
Sabbath  by  self-defence  in  a  siege  ;  and  a  peculiar 
Sabbath  ritual  is  not  only  the  most  burdensome  of 
their  modern  observances,  but  the  neglect  of  it  made 
one  of  their  first  reproaches  against  the  spirit  and 
method  of  the  ministry  of  Jesus. 

The  seventh-day  festival  is  the  simplest  element  of 
the  Hebrew  religious  year,  and  fixes  the  type  of  its 
festal  cycle.  Besides  the  week  of  seven  days,  there 
was  the  great  week,  or  *'  week  of  weeks,"  consisting 
of  fifty  days,  and  intervening  (for  example)  between 
the  Passover  and  Pentecost.  This  again  would  nearly 
divide  the  year  by  seven,  the  lunar  twelvemonth  con- 
sisting of  a  little  more  than  seven  sabbath  months. 
This  theoretic  partition  of  the  sacred  year  probably 
had  its  influence  in  assigning  the  seasons  of  great 
national  festivals. 

Each  seventh  year  was,  likewise,  a  season  of  rest 
and  religious  instruction.*  It  was  called  the  Sabbath- 
year,  or  "year  of  release."  The  land  should  lie 
fallow :  .even  fruit  or  grapes  might  not  be  gathered, 
—  a   severe   lesson  of  thrift   and   foresight,  if  ever 

*  Leviticus  xxv.  2-7,  18-22.  These  latter  verses  should  intervene 
before  v.  8. 


236  THE  LAW. 

actually  enforced.*  What  grew  without  human  cul- 
ture, or  from  the  chance  scattering  of  the  last  har- 
vest, was  left  free  to  be  consumed  by  man  or  beast, 
—  a  special  provision  of  charity  for  the  poor.  (Ex. 
xxiii.  11.)  The  soil  of  Palestine,  sterile  in  compari- 
son with  the  rich  valley  of  the  Nile,  may  have  seemed 
to  the  conquerors  to  have  needed  these  periods  of 
rest,  —  an  imperfect  anticipation  of  more  scientific 
husbandry.  But  among  the  perils,  invasions,  and 
revolutions  of  the  realm,  it  is  hard  to  find  room  for 
the  realizing  of  this  scrupulous  economy  ;  and  it  has 
been  greatly  suspected  to  be  only  one  of  the  ideal 
features  of  the  theocracy,  not  observed  before  the 
Captivity,  but  only  by  the  more  rigid  Judaism  of  a 
later  day.  Its  existence,  then,  is  noticed  by  Josephus, 
Tacitus,  and  others  ;  but  in  the.  sacred  writings  the 
sabbath-year  is  spoken  of  as  equivalent  to  a  season 
of  ravage  (Lev.  xxvi.  34)  ;  as  if  the  seventy  years' 
desolation  should  make  up  for  the  neglected  observ- 
ance of  the  times  of  rest,  for  the  whole  duration  of 
the  monarchy. 

Seven  of  these  periods,  or  great  years,  brought 
round  the  cycle  of  the  half-century.  (Lev.  xxv.  8  - 17, 
23-54.)  The  year  of  Jubilee  was  announced  by 
solemn  proclamations  of  the  priests,  as  the  season  of 
the  restoration  of  all  things,  and  a  time  of  religious 
joy.  The  theory  of  the  commonwealth  supposed 
every  family  estate  to  revert  then  to  its  first  pos- 
sessor.    Debts  were  extinguished,  and  the  slave  for 

♦  A  great  annoyance  in  later  times  to  the  Roman  tax-gatherers,  who 
were  compelled  to  respect  what  they  styled  the  pious  laziness  of  the 
Jews.     (Josephus,  Antiq.,  XIV.  10,  6.     Tacitus,  Hist.,  V.  4.) 


JUBILEE.  —  THE  SEVEN  FEASTS.  237 

debt  was  again  free.  The  extremes  of  riches  and 
poverty,  so  far  as  they  exist  at  all  among  a  people  of 
so  simple  manners  as  the  early  race  of  Israel,  were 
reduced  to  comparative  equality.  It  was  in  its  theory 
as  equitable  a  solution  as  the  genius  of  the  legislator 
could  devise  to  the  deepest  social  problem.  If  it 
failed  in  practice,  —  which  the  declarations  of  the 
prophets  make  but  too  apparent,  —  it  was  because 
the  conditions  suited  to  the  rude  economy  of  a  clan 
are  outgrown  in  the  complicated  relations  of  a 
wealthy  and  commercial  state.  The  institution  of 
the  Jubilee,  whether  ever  realized  or  not  after  the 
model  prescribed  in  the  Levitical  code,  stands  as  a 
monument  of  the  far-seeing  policy  and  humane 
intention  of  those  who  laid  the  foundation  of  the 
Hebrew  commonwealth. 

The  type  found  in  the  primitive  institution  of  the 
Sabbath  is  thus  carried  out  in  each  larger  division  of 
time,  and  marks  the  recurring  seasons  of  religious 
holiday.  The  great  annual  feast-days  seem  to  have 
been  distributed  with  an  obscurer  reference  to  the 
same  model.  They  include  seven  yearly  seasons  of 
sacred  commemoration  ;  *  not  observing,  however, 
the  intervals  of  the  great  week,  or  month  of  fifty 
days.  No  celebration  took  place  in  the  winter.  The 
year  was  divided  into  two  equal  parts ;  and  the 
sacred  seasons  were  grouped  about  the  ancient  ob- 
servance of  the  spring  and  autumn  festivals. 

*  These,  according  to  Philo,  are :  1 .  Passover ;  2.  First-Fruits ; 
3.  Unleavened  Bread ;  4.  Pentecost;  5.  Trumpets;  6.  Atonement;  7. 
Tabernacles.  To  complete  the  decade,  he  adds  the  daily.  Sabbath,  and 
new-moon  solemnities. 


238  THE  LAW. 

Of  the  seven  special  occasions  thus  provided  for  in 
the  theory  of  the  ritual,  only  five  require  distinct 
notice. 

The  religious  year  began  just  after  the  spring 
equinox,  —  the  season  when  the  Syrian  festival  cele- 
brated the  new  birth  of  the  returning  sun.  On  the 
fourteenth  of  the  month,*  or  eve  of  the  first  full 
moon,  a  lamb  was  slain  for  sacrifice  by  every  house- 
hold, and  eaten  as  in  haste,  with  unleavened  bread 
and  bitter  herbs.  It  was  a  rite  of  expiation,  and  of 
preparation  for  the  coming  solemnities ;  and  its  mem- 
ories were  the  more  solemn,  that  they  recalled  the 
deliverance  of  the  people  when  in  silence  and  haste 
they  fled  from  Egyptian  bondage. 

This  was  the  feast  of  Passover.  The  blood  of  the 
slain  lamb  was  sprinkled  on  the  door-posts,  —  or 
afterwards  on  the  altar,  —  the  usual  ceremony  of  ex- 
piation. It  was  then  roasted  whole,  supported  on 
two  pomegranate  stakes,  one  passing  through  the 
breast,  and  forming  with  the  other  the  figure  of  a 
cross. t  It  was  a  mournful  and  silent  meal,  partaken 
only  by  men.  The  lamb  was  the  substitute,  or  "  ran- 
som," of  the  first-born  child ;  J  as  if  this  were  in  ear- 

*  Leviticus  xxiii.  5.  Originally  the  tenth  (Exodus  xii.  3),  leav- 
ing before  the  succeeding  festival  an  interval  of  half  a  ten-day  week, 
of  which  traces  have  been  fancied  in  the  earliest  time  (Genesis 
xxiv.  55). 

t  Which  adds  to  the  significance  of  the  allusion  in  1  Corinthians 
V,  7.     See  Justin,  Trypho,  p.  117. 

X  See  Exodus  (xii.  13,  23 ;  xiii.  2,  15  ;  xxii.  29),  which  connects  it 
with  the  death  of  the  Egyptian  first-born.  These  and  other  allusions 
have  suggested  tJie  opinion  that  the  Passover  is  the  relic  of  a  more  an- 
cient rite,  in  which  a  child  was  slain,  and  its  flesh  tasted  in  the  cruel 
sacrament,  —  a  rite  which  popular  credulity  has  perpetually  charged 


PASSOVER  AND  PENTECOST.         239 

lier  time  a  forfeit  to  the  dark  Power  whose  favour  for 
the  year  the  old  superstition  sought  thus  bloodily  to 
propitiate. 

The  name  Passover  belongs  strictly  to  the  prelim- 
inary rite,  but  is  often  applied  to  the  seven  days' 
"  feast  of  unleavened  bread  "  that  followed.  The 
solemn  act  of  propitiation  having  been  performed, 
and  all  impurities  of  fermented  matter  and  the  like 
having  been  removed,  the  ensuing  festival  heralded 
the  new  life  of  the  opening  year.  Some  early  ears 
of  the  new  wheat-harvest  were  brought  as  a  "  wave- 
offering  "  before  the  altar  (Lev.  xxiii.  10)  ;  these 
kept  in  mind  the  original  sense  of  the  feast,  which  re- 
quired a  banquet  of  first-fruits.  They  were  pounded, 
parched,  and  made  into  unleavened  bread.*  Until 
the  harvest  had  been  thus  religiously  partaken,  it  was 
not  lawful  for  it  to  be  used  at  all.f  The  seven  days 
made  one  of  the  grand  religious  celebrations  of  the 
whole  people.  All  were  supposed  to  share  in  its 
solemnities  ;  and  even  those  who  dwelt  as  far  away 
as  Babylon  or  Rome  might  be  represented  in  the 
sanctuary  by  their  annual  gift. 

The  Pentecost  was  the  "  feast  of  first-fruits,"  or 
the  thanksgiving  for  the  completed  harvest.  It  was 
also  religiously  associated  with  the  giving  of  the  Law, 
as  the  Passover  with  the  escape  from  Egypt.     It  was 

upon  the  Jews  at  the  season  of  Easter.  (See  Eisenmenger.)  The 
blood  of  criminals  put  to  death  at  this  season  was  firmly  believed  to 
possess  an  expiatory  value, 

*  Originally  a  sign  of  haste  (Exodus  xii.  39),  —  as  Tacitus  will  have 
it,  because  the  Jews  were  hurrying  away  as  thieves. 

t  A  dispensation  is  said  to  have  been  allowed  to  the  hot  valley  of 
Jericho,  where  the  harvest  is  some  two  weeks  earlier. 


240  THE  LAW. 

a  sequel  to  the  earlier  festival.  It  followed  at  an 
interval  of  seven  weeks,  and  made  the  third  and 
closing  season  of  spring  holiday.  The  wheat-harvest 
had  all  been  gathered  in  the  interval ;  and  that  the 
poorest  might  share  in  the  joy  of  the  festivity,  it  was 
humanely  provided  that  the  grain  should  be  loosely 
gathered,  and  a  liberal  gleaning  left.  (Lev.  xix.  9  ; 
xxiii.  22.)  Tithes  of  the  harvest,  with  their  accom- 
paniment of  oil  and  leavened  cakes  (a  sign  tliat  the 
harvest  was  now  free  for  unlimited  use),  made  the 
popular  contribution  for  the  support  of  the  priestly 
body,  —  a  support  augmented  by  fines  and  the  per- 
quisites of  sacrifice. 

The  still  more  imposing  series  of  autumn  festivals 
was  introduced  by  the  day  of  annual  Atonement,  — 
the  tenth  of  the  seventh  month,  and  the  great  Sab- 
bath of  the  year.  (Lev.  chap,  xvi.)  It  was  preceded 
by  a  "  holy  convocation,"  or  the  "  day  of  blowing  of 
trumpets "  ( Lev.  xxiii.  24  ;  Num.  xxix.  1)  ;  and 
was  the  day  of  solemn  expiation  for  the  sins  of  priest 
and  people,  that,  cleared  from  the  stam  of  guilt, 
they  might  be  free  to  join  in  the  approaching  festivi- 
ties. For  a  week  previous  (Lev.  viii.  33)  the  high- 
priest  dwelt  almost  in  solitude,  undergoing  perpetual 
acts  of  penance,  lest  any  ritual  impurity  should  unfit 
him  for  his  office.  The  day,  which  commenced  at 
sunset,  was  kept  strictly  as  a  fast,  and  a  season  of 
mournful  solemnities.  At  midnight  the  service 
of  the  priest  began,  with  formal  cleansings  pre- 
scribed by  the  ritual  code.  The  great  sacrifice  of 
Atonement  marked  the  most  solemn  moment  of  the 
Jewish  calendar.     It  was  the  crisis  of  the  religious 


DAY   OF  ATONEMENT.  241 

year,  the  culminating  act  of  the  ceremonial.  On 
this  day,  and  no  other,  the  veil  of  the  inner  sanctu- 
ary was  put  aside,  and  the  high-priest  stood  face  to 
face  before  Jehovah.  Bearing  a  vessel  of  incense 
which  he  dropped  upon  a  censer  of  live  coals  from 
the  great  altar,  darkening  the  shrine  with  its  dense 
smoke,  he  brought  first  the  blood  of  a  bullock  slain 
as  a  sin-offering  for  himself,  which  he  sprinkled  seven 
times  upon  the  ark.  Then  followed  the  remarkable 
rite  of  expiation  for  the  people.  Two  goats,  alike  in 
age,  colour,  and  size,  were  led  before  the  sanctuary ; 
and  one  was  assigned  by  lot  "  to  Jehovah,"  the 
other  "  to  Azazel,"  the  malign  power  of  the  wilder- 
ness. The  first  was  slain  as  a  sin-offering,  in  the 
usual  form,  and  the  blood  sprinkled  in  like  manner 
on  the  mercy-seat*  and  sanctuary  floor,  where  it 
mingled  with  that  of  the  bullock  previously  slain  ; 
and  all  that  remained  was  poured  out  upon  the  great 
brazen  altar.  Thus  the  shrine,  the  sanctuary,  and 
the  altar  were  successively  purified.  Upon  the  head 
of  the  other  goat,  by  a  solemn  form  of  imprecation, 
were  then  laid  the  offences  of  the  people  that  might 
expose  them  to  the  hostile  power  ;  f  and  he  was  then 

*  See  the  interesting  exposition  of  this  rite  given  by  Mr.  Martineau, 
in  Lect.  VI.  of  the  "  Liverpool  Lectures,"  p.  58. 

t  Such  seems  the  more  obvious  meaning  of  this  portion  of  the  rite, 
which  has,  however,  been  very  variously  interpreted.  A  similar  custom 
is  related  of  some  Asiatic  islanders,  who  "  send  a  model  canoe,  cursed 
and  laden  with  the  sins  of  the  people,  far  away  on  the  ocean  ;  "  also 
of  certain  tribes  that  make  a  horse  the  bearer  of  their  ritual  burden. 
As  the  doctrine  of  evil  spirits  made  no  part  of  the  earlier  Hebrew 
creed,  it  has  been  suggested  that  Azazel  was  "  only  a  liturgical  idea." 
Perhaps  the  name  is  easiest  understood  as  suggesting  something  like 
the  Greek  notion  of  the  infernal  deities. 

11  p 


242  THE   LAW. 

driven  away  to  the  supposed  haunt  of  demons  in  the 
wilderness.  Lastly,  the  animals  already  slain  for 
sacrifice  were  totally  consumed  with  fire. 

This  most  solemn  and  remarkable  act  of  the  He- 
brew ritual  ushered  in,  at  five  days'  interval,  the  last 
and  greatest  of  the  national  holidays, —  the  feast 
of  Tabernacles.  If  the  fast  and  sacrifice  of  Atone- 
ment were  the  most  mournful,  the  feast  that  followed 
was  the  occasion  of  the  most  unbounded  and  even 
riotous  joy.*  It  was  at  the  autumnal  equinox,  —  the 
close  of  the  year's  labours.  It  celebrated  the  ripe- 
ness of  the  vintage,  the  gathering  in  of  all  the  fruits, 
the  full  and  luxuriant  bounty  of  the  God  that  ruled 
the  year.  For  eight  days  the  people  dwelt  in  booths 
(Lev.  xxiii.  40),  or  huts  woven  of  green  boughs  and 
decked  with  festoons  of  rich  foliage,  recalling,  by  a 
double  allusion,  the  old  Syrian  festivities  of  harvest- 
home  and  the  memories  of  a  camp-life  in  the  wilder- 
ness. The  dignity  and  splendour  of  this  festival 
were  augmented  by  time.    At  first  it  was  held  of  less 

*  The  following  is  Plutarch's  description  of  this  festival,  interesting 
to  us  as  a  Jewish  custom  seen  with  the  eyes  of  a  Greek  :  "  The  great- 
est and  most  sumptuous  festival  of  the  Jews  is  in  time  and  manner 
like  that  of  Dionysus.  For  during  the  so-called  fast  at  the  flush  of 
vintage,  they  spread  tables  with  a  variety  of  fruit,  and  set  them  under 
booths  woven  mostly  of  vine  and  ivy,  calling  the  earlier  part  of  the 
feast.  Tabernacles.  A  few  days  later  they  observe  another  festival, 
which,  without  doubt  and  obviously,  is  that  of  the  so-called  Bacchus. 
This  celebration  is  a  bearing  of  bowls  and  festoons,  during  which  they 
carry  wreathed  staffs  (thyrsi)  into  the  temple.  What  they  do  there  we 
know  not ;  most  likely  it  is  a  Bacchic  feast ;  for,  in  calling  upon  their 
God,  they  use  little  horns,  as  the  Greeks  at  the  Dionysiacs.  Others 
advance  playing  on  the  harp ;  these  they  call  Levites,  deriving  this  name 
either  from  the  title  Lysius,  or  more  likely  from  Evius.^'  (Quoted 
by  Winer.) 


TABERNACLES.  243 

account  than  some  of  the  other  holidays.  From  the 
Conquest  to  the  Captivity  it  is  even  said  (Neh.  viii. 
17)  to  have  been  never  once  observed.  But  in 
course  of  time  it  came  to  be  more  magnificent  than 
all.  The  week  was  a  season  of  continual  sacrifice 
and  festivity.  Besides  thank-offerings  brought  by 
private  hands,  and  other  prescribed  acts  of  devotion, 
including  the  sacrifice  of  two  rams  and  fourteen 
lambs  each  day,  seventy  bullocks  were  slain,  com- 
mencing with  thirteen  on  the  first  day  and  diminish- 
ing to  seven  on  the  last.  Water  drawn  from  sacred 
springs  was  poured  out  with  bowls  of  wine,  in  glad 
libations.  A  grand  illumination  with  the  candela- 
bras  of  the  temple,  lighting  up  (it  was  said)  the 
entire  city,  a  religious  procession  with  flutes  and 
songs,  and  a  popular  dance  by  moonlight,  closed  the 
holy  week.  As  the  last  of  the  sacred  seasons,  and 
the  termination  of  the  festal  year,  nothing  was  omit- 
ted that  could  make  the  ceremonial  splendid  and 
imposing.  And  on  each  returning  seventh  or  Sab- 
bath-year, this  was  the  appointed  time  for  the  public 
reading  of  the  Law  (Deut.  xxxi.  10,  11)  and  the 
reviving  of  the  august  memories  of  the  nation's 
early  history. 

Thus  the  three  great  feasts  of  Passover,  Pentecost, 
and  Tabernacles,  with  the  day  of  annual  fasting  and 
Atonement,  made  the  marked  features  of  the  year, 
and  the  most  characteristic  events  of  the  religious 
life  among  the  Hebrews.  It  will  have  been  seen  how 
they  cluster  about  the  ancient  seasons  of  Syrian  fes- 
tivity ;  and  how,  if  on  the  one  hand  they  recall  the 
incidents  of  that  period  which  shaped  the  first  ele- 


244  THE  LAW. 

ments  of  the  national  existence,  on  the  other  hand 
their  significance  shades  away,  and  becomes  blended 
with  memories  of  an  earlier  worship.  The  ground- 
work of  Canaanitish  custom  was  assumed,  and  turned 
to  the  new  demands  of  Hebrew  faith,  precisely  as 
the  popular  festivities  of  Italy,  the  Saturnalia  and  the 
Etruscan  ceremonial,  were  adopted  into  the  ritual  of 
Christian  Rome.  The  real  aim  of  those  who  framed 
the  Levitical  institutions  is  seen  in  this,  —  that  they 
sanctioned  nothing  of  those  primeval  rites  so  identi- 
fied with  the  people's  oldest  reverence  and  affections, 
without  moulding  it  to  serve  a  higher  purpose,  and 
attaching  to  it  a  secondary  meaning,  derived  from 
what  was  essential  in  the  true  faith  of  Israel. 

The  precise  era  of  the  transformation  thus  effected 
it  would  be  impossible  to  tell  with  any  certainty. 
Constant  tradition,  together  with  the  earliest  literary 
monuments,  attributes  it  to  Moses.  But  a  system  of 
law  is  not  made  in  a  day.  A  religious,  any  more 
than  a  political,  constitution  cannot  be  fabricated  out- 
right, and  wrought  perforce  into  the  thought  and 
life  of  an  entire  people.  To  engraft  new  fruit  even 
on  an  old  stock,  to  attach  a  higher  order  of  ideas 
to  an  hereditary  ritual,  is  a  task  of  ages.  How 
early  was  this  task  accomplished  among  the  He- 
brews ?  Their  history,  down  to  the  captivity,  shows 
us  almost  the  whole  population  adhering  obstinately 
to  traditions  and  usages  which  were  relics  of  an  an- 
cient superstition,  blindly  prone  even  to  the  most 
revolting  and  abhorrent  rites  of  an  idolatrous  faith ; 
while,  on  the  other  hand,  its  religious  teachers  are 
acting  generally  in  the  spirit  of  a  purer  creed,  con- 


HEBEEW  INSTITUrrONS  AND  FAITH.  245 

tending  at  odds  against  a  fanaticism  they  seek  to 
bring  within  bounds,  sedulously  cherishing  a  senti- 
ment of  national  unity  as  opposed  to  the  petty  hos- 
tilities of  the  clan,  and  fortifying  it  by  reverence  to 
the  nation's  God,  as  opposed  to  the  alien  deities  of 
tribes  more  barbarous  than  their  own.*  In  the 
course  of  ages  that  revolution  was  brought  about, 
of  such  infinite  moment  to  the  religious  destinies  of 
mankind.  Judaea  alone,  when  the  "  fulness  of  time  '* 
was  come,  was  fitted  to  utter  the  Word  which  had 
power  to  bring  new  life  to  a  corrupt  and  sceptical 
age.  Its  people,  who  would  not  share  the  grander 
faith  of  the  future,  have  continued  the  standing 
miracle  of  history  by  their  loyal  adherence  to  the 
religion  of  the  past. 

The  agents  of  this  revolution  were  the  long  line 
of  the  prophetical  men  of  Hebrew  history,  begin- 
ning with  Moses  and  ending  not  till  after  the  Captiv- 
ity. Its  instrument  was  the  gradual  building  up  of 
those  institutions  whose  main  features  have  now  been 
traced.  Without  entering  into  questions  of  purely 
literary  criticism,  we  may  regard  these  institutions  as 
having  their  root  in  primitive  local  rites  and  sacred 
customs  of  the  tribe,  allied  we  know  not  how  nearly 
with  similar  rites  and  customs  among  surrounding 
nations ;  then  gradually  gathered,  classified,  revised, 
recast,  after  the  central  spirit  or  idea  of  a  higher 
form  of  faith,  and  so  wrought  up  into  a  code  of  ec- 

*  See  Ex.  xxiii.  24,  33;  Lev.  xx.  2.  The  later  law  (see  Deut. 
vii.  2-5;  xii.  2,  3,  29-31  ;  xvi.  21)  seems  even  more  conscious  of 
invading  Syrian  superstitions,  indicating  probably  a  maturer  develop- 
ment of  the  Mosaic  faith. 


246  THE  LAW. 

clesiastic  or  levitical  law,  such  as  we  find  in  the  pres- 
ent Hebrew  Scriptures,  expanding  indefinitely  from 
the  type  which  an  unchallenged  tradition  assigned  to 
Moses. 

To  a  process  such  as  this  the  existence  and  the 
gradually  increasing  power  of  the  Priesthood  were 
essential.  In  the  patriarchal  state  its  functions 
were  exercised  by  the  head  of  the  household,  and  the 
chief  priest  was  the  chieftain  of  the  clan.  The  sacred 
office  descended  with  the  birthright  to  the  eldest  son ; 
and  the  result  would  be  a  multitude  of  local  rites 
utterly  divorced  from  one  another,  and  a  hopeless  dis- 
persion of  the  people  among  adjacent  tribes.  How 
near  the  people  of  Israel  were  to  incurring  this  fatal- 
ity, the  history  has  shown.  After  six  centuries  of 
struggle,  it  ingulfed  five  sixths  of  them. 

But  in  the  construction  of  their  nationality,  under 
Moses  or  his  successors,  the  needful  counterpoise,  or 
centralizing  power,  was  secured  by  appointing  one 
sacred  tribe,  the  Levites,  as  the  delegated  officials  of 
the  people  in  all  religious  offices.  (Num.  iii.  12 ; 
viii.  15.)  At  what  time  this  change  was  introduced 
it  is  impossible  to  tell.  It  seems  easiest  to  connect  it 
with  the  establishment  of  the  sanctuary  at  Jerusalem, 
under  the  auspices  of  the  Monarchy.*  In  memory 
of  the  elder  custom,  the  first-born  son  in  every  house- 
hold, down  to  this  day,  purchases  his  exemption  from 
the  service  of  the  altar  by  a  nominal  sum  of  head- 

*  See  pp.  126,  156.  No  reference  is  made  to  the  Levitical  body  in 
the  books  of  Kings ;  and  only  a  single  doubtful  notice  ( 1  Samuel  vi. 
15)  appears  from  the  time  of  the  Conquest  to  the  later  records  of  the 
Monarchy.     Samuel,  the  model  priest,  was  of  the  tribe  of  Ephraim. 


LEVITICAL  PRIESTHOOD.  247 

money  (Num.  iii.  47),  paid  when  he  receives  the  rite 
of  circumcision  and  his  name.  The  males  of  the 
tribe  of  Levi,  not  otherwise  disqualified,  were  bound 
to  the  service  of  the  sanctuary  from  twenty-five  to 
fifty,  the  flower  of  their  life.  Being  set  apart,  and 
attached  by  an  equal  alliance  to  every  portion  of  the 
people,  they  were  in  theory  exempt  from  civil  duties, 
and  shared  no  portion  of  the  conquered  territory. 
Their  townships  were  assigned  by  lot  or  free  gift. 
(Num.  XXXV.  2.)  Their  support  must  be  from  tithes 
(Lev.  xxvii.  30)  and  voluntary  ofierings  at  the  altar. 
A  poor  and  vagabond  priesthood  it  must  have  been 
mostly  in  the  earlier  time,*  if  the  complete  theory  of 
it  was  then  conceived  at  all,  and  until  the  splendid 
era  of  the  national  life,  when  it  shared  the  glory  of 
the  monarchy  that  gave  it  dignity  and  strength.  Sub- 
sequent to  the  Captivity,  during  the  struggles  and 
short-lived  independence  of  the  little  state  of  Judaea, 
it  attracted  to  itself  all  the  functions  of  government, 
and  remained  still  powerful  in  its  narrowing  sphere 
down  to  the  final  conquest  by  the  Romans. 

The  ritual  which  was  developed  under  the  growing 
power  of  the  priesthood  gradually  formed  a  cluster 
of  religious  associations  about  the  spots  of  peculiar 
sacredness.  Ancient  rites  of  high  places,  and  family 
altars,  so  frequent  in  the  early  periods  of  the  history, 
were  superseded  by  degrees,  as  the  centralizing  pol- 
icy of  monarchy  and  hierarchy  became  established. 
The  Sanctuary,  which  had  been  removed  from  Shiloh 
to  Nob,  Gibeon,  or  elsewhere,  as  danger  or  policy 

*  See  the  story  of  the  Levite,  in  Judges,  chap.  xvii.  and  xviii.    He 
was  "  of  the  family  of  Judah." 


248  THE  LAW. 

might  require,  was  finally  transferred  to  Jerusalem, 
and  transformed  into  the  magnificent  temple  of  Solo- 
mon. Here  the  ceremonies  of  the  religion  acquired  a 
splendour  wholly  unmatched  by  anything  in  the  past. 
The  Levitical  establishment  became  part  of  the  pomp 
of  royalty,  —  however  uncertain  its  fortunes,  exposed 
to  the  shifting  inclinations  of  the  kings.  The  Leviti- 
cal law,  adopting  the  still  remaining  features  of  early 
custom  which  it  was  impotent  to  overthrow,  easily 
adjusted  them  to  the  new  scale  of  magnitude  and 
the  new  order  of  ideas.  Reverence  for  the  temple 
and  for  the  holy  city  was  fortified  by  all  that  could 
be  engrafted  or  retained  of  the  antique  symbolism, 
inherited  as  it  were  along  with  the  patriarchal  blood. 
The  elaborate  ceremonial,  with  its  crowd  of  petty 
services,  and  its  numberless  cases  of  casuistry,  legal 
adjudication,  and  sanitary  police,  furnished  abimdant 
occupation  for  the  throng  of  priests,  with  their  chiefs 
and  menials.  The  policy  was  right  in  its  inception  ; 
and  doubtless  it  saved  to  the  world  the  very  existence 
of  the  Hebrew  nationality  and  name.  Nor  were  the 
prestige  and  privilege  of  the  priest  too  great,  if  we 
consider  him  as  commissioned  to  sustain  the  interest 
of  the  higher  type  of  faith,  and  as  the  guardian  of  the 
nation's  religious  centre.  For  that,  he  needed  all 
the  authority,  power,  and  dignity  reflected  from  the 
throne. 

But  the  history  has  already  shown  that  this  great 
advantage  was  not  got  without  its  heavy  price.  The 
popular  affection  and  faith,  nourished  on  hill-top  or 
in  grove,  or  within  the  charmed  circle  of  local  rites, 
would   not  bear   transplanting.     By  its   change   of 


FORMALISM  AND   IDOLATRY.  249 

place  the  antique  ritual  suffered  the  loss  of  its  iden- 
tity. The  old  Hebrew  spirit  was  averse  alike  to  the 
religious  innovations  and  the  despotic  centralizing 
of  the  monarchy.  The  division  of  the  kingdom  has 
been  exhibited  (see  page  172)  as  the  protest  of  the 
more  ancient  elements  in  the  life  of  Israel  against 
the  policy  that  invaded  them.  The  lingering  super- 
stitions of  the  country,  the  relics  of  Syrian  or  Ca- 
naanitish  devotion,  the  horrid  rites  even  of  Baal, 
Moloch,  and  Ashtoreth,  must  seem  to  many  the  more 
genuine  inheritance  of  the  elder  time.*  While  Le- 
vitic  ritual  flourished  in  the  royal  sanctuary,  and 
began  to  gather  its  own  circle  of  tradition  and  to 
gain  a  reflected  sanctity,  the  corruptions  of  the  old 
idolatry  became  more  rife  than  ever  in  the  provinces. 
The  whole  people,  said  the  better  religious  teachers, 
was  given  over  to  them.  The  priests  were  corrupt, 
the  prophets  resorted  to  omens,  magic,  oracles,  and 
spells,!  while  the  jealousy  of  the  northern  kingdom 
against  Judah  was  fostered  by  the  policy  of  its  kings. 
The  Hebrew  religion  was  essentially  and  at  first  a  gen- 
uine protest  against  the  grossness  of  surrounding  idol- 
atry. In  its  better  days,  and  while  served  by  its  better 
men,  it  fulfilled  this  purpose  well.  But  it  retained 
all  along  innumerable  features  that  allied  it  with  the 
superstitions  it  could  not  wholly  overcome  ;  and  now 
that  the  ritual  was  fully  matured,  and  brought  to  its 
consummate  form  in  the  temple  at  Jerusalem,  these 
led,  on  the  one  hand,  to  a  slavish  formalism  that 

*  An  opinion  defended  by  Ghillany,  and  boldly  assumed  in  Mackay's 
"  Pi'ogress  of  the  Intellect." 

t  See  Jeremiah  v.  31  ;  xxxii.  32  -  35. 
11* 


250  THE  LAW. 

made  its  meanest  act  symbolic  of  something  in  the 
spiritual  realm  of  God ;  and,  on  the  other  hand,  to 
that  recreancy  and  degeneracy  which  finally  scattered 
ten  twelfths  of  the  people  into  blank  oblivion,  and 
sank  their  nationality  forever. 

The  danger  of  such  an  institution  was,  of  overload- 
ing the  religion  with  the  multiplicity  of  forms ;  of  di- 
vorcing itself  from  the  antique  simplicity  and  popular 
temper  of  the  true  Hebrew  mind  ;  of  smothering  the 
life  in  what  was  projected  as  its  safeguard  and  de- 
fence; of  giving  birth  to  a  new  order  of  supersti- 
tions, as  alien  from  the  true  faith  committed  to  it  as 
those  it  was  meant  to  suppress  ;  or  of  compromising 
unworthily  with  those  customs,  whose  forms  it  re- 
tained, while  professing  to  invest  them  with  a  new 
significance. 

It  would  have  been  against  the  experience  of  all 
history,  if  these  dangers  had  been  constantly  averted. 
The  Hebrew  priesthood  became,  like  other  priest- 
hoods, formalistic,  domineering,  and  corrupt.*  It 
oppressed  the  people  with  the  growing  enormity  of 
tithes,  forced  donations,  multiplied  fines  and  burden- 
some penance. t  It  lost  the  popular  heart.  The 
splendours  of  the  capital  and  the  seclusion  of  sacred 
courts  estranged  it  from  the  true  temper  of  the  na- 
tional faith.  Its  integrity  wavered  with  the  chang- 
ing and  despotic  policy  of  the  kings.  And  it  re- 
quired the  severe  winnowing  of  a  long  captivity,  the 
sorrows  of  exile,  and  the  close  community  of  feeling 
in  a  little  colony  after  their  restoration  to  the  sacred 

*  See  Jeremiah  i.  18 ;  ii.  8  ;  v.  31.         f  See  Ezekiel  xxxiv.  2-4. 


THE  PROPHETS.  251 

hills  of  Judah,  to  unite  priest  and  people  upon  the 
strict  model  of  the  later  Judaism. 

Meanwhile,  we  must  recognize  an  influence  gradu- 
ally developed  from  within,  which  strove  perpetually 
to  recall  the  primitive  spirit  and  intent  of  the  He- 
brew faith.  There  existed  in  Israel,  from  the  earliest 
time,  a  class  of  bolder  and  more  earnest  men,  standing 
more  independently  each  by  his  own  conviction  and 
form  of  thought.  These  men  were  now  closely  allied 
with  the  priesthood  ;  now  they  protested  vehemently 
against  its  faults.  Their  appeal  was  to  the  popular 
heart  and  imagination,  for  encouragement  or  re- 
proach. They  were  now  favoured  and  now  perse- 
cuted by  the  kings.  They  were  the  orators,  the 
poets,  the  preachers  of  the  declining  state  of  Israel. 
They  were  the  honourable  succession  of  the  Hebrew 
Prophets. 


VIII.    THE   PROPHETS. 

AS  the  Hebrew  institutions  were  the  mature  and 
regenerated  form  of  rites  and  customs  dating 
far  back  in  the  immemorial  antiquity  of  the  race, 
so  in  the  Prophets  was  manifested  the  characteristic 
religious  genius  of  that  race.  This  genius  it  was 
which  worked  perpetually  on  the  material  found  in 
the  national  mind  or  inherited  in  its  traditions.  It 
powerfully  tempered  the  Hebrew  spirit  and  character. 
It  gave  its  distinctive  colouring  to  political  events  and 
institutions.  It  confirmed  the  native  tendency  and 
guided  the  best  culture  of  the  popular  mind.  It  re- 
flected the  nation's  life  and  fortunes  in  a  literature 
of  high  and  peculiar  order,  and  so  became  its  especial 
representative  to  later  ages.  Finally,  —  which  most 
concerns  our  present  purpose,  —  it  was  the  influence 
which  moulded  the  nation's  mind  and  morals  from 
within ;  the  first  or  spontaneous  element  in  its  relig- 
ious progress  ;  and  so  the  needful  preparation  for 
the  after  stages  of  that  evolution  which  made  this 
people  the  harbinger  of  spiritual  life  to  the  entire 
family  of  mankind. 

In  our  historic  theories,  indeed,  we  may  regard 
every  extinct  nationality  as  a  growth  never  quite 
completed ;  as  the  germ  of  a  larger  life  not  yet  devel- 


FUNCTION  OF  PROPHECY.  253 

oped ;  as  prophetic  of  what  only  a  distant  future  can 
bring  to  fulfilment.  But  the  Hebrews  are  nearly  if 
not  quite  alone  in  consciously  accepting  this  as  their 
appointed  destiny.  Their  gifted  men  were  powerfully 
aware  of  a  mission  connecting  them  with  the  future 
yet  more  vitally  than  with  the  past,  and  constructed 
their  forms  of  religious  thought  or  national  develop- 
ment in  the  vast  spaces  of  an  endless  Hereafter.  This 
it  is  which  distinguishes  that  race  from  every  other, 
and  makes  the  religious  value  of  its  history  inex- 
haustible. 

Such  was  the  peculiar  place,  and  one  eminent  ser- 
vice, of  the  prophetical  office  among  the  Hebrews. 
But,  in  interpreting  the  phrase  to  the  modern  mind, 
we  have  to  free  it  of  its  accidental  modern  associa- 
tions, especially  those  which  identify  it  with  a  partic- 
ular department  of  the  Hebrew  literature.  Prophecy, 
in  the  original  sense  of  it,  was  "  not  a  literature,  but 
an  act."  It  included  in  its  larger  meaning  all  that 
we  understand  by  the  term  "  spiritual  power,"  as 
distinguished  from  the  temporal  power  of  the  state, 
and  (though  more  loosely)  from  the  ecclesiastical 
power  of  the  priesthood.  In  other  words,  it  implied 
all  the  religious,  moral,  and  intellectual  agencies 
brought  to  bear  vitally  on  the  popular  mind  and  con- 
science, —  all,  of  course,  limited  by  the  standard  of 
culture  in  a  rude  age,  and  shaped  by  the  peculiar 
religious  temperament  of  an  Oriental  people.  It 
might  be,  and  it  often  was,  administered  by  a  priest 
in  full  orders  ;  but  in  its  essence  it  was  altogetlier 
distinct.  The  priest  had  to  do  with  the  ritual  and 
the  stated  services.     He  was,  so  to  speak,  the  nation's 


254  THE  PROPHETS. 

delegate  to  the  throne  of  its  invisible  Sovereign; 
his  office  was,  to  propitiate  his  ofifended  majesty, 
and  supplicate  his  royal  favour.  The  Prophet  —  the 
"  Seer,"  or  man  of  vision,  as  he  was  called  at  first* — 
was  the  delegate  of  Jehovah  to  his  people.  He  was 
emphatically  a  man  of  action  and  popular  address. 
His  sphere  of  activity  was  abroad  among  the  people. 
His  influence  was  one  of  the  determining  forces  in 
each  critical  exigency  of  the  state.  In  the  civil  and 
political  life  of  the  nation,  as  well  as  in  the  courses 
of  its  religious  thought,  his  position  is  at  once  indis 
pensable  and  unique. 

The  authority  and  prestige  of  such  an  office  were 
sustained  by  a  numerous  well-recognized  body.  The 
class  of  men  called  prophets  are  reckoned  not  by  soli- 
tary individuals,  but  by  companies,  and  even  by  hun- 
dreds.f  Especially  as  the  ritual  establishment  ac- 
quires coherency  and  shape,  they  appear  more  and 
more  distinctly  in  the  exercise  of  their  peculiar  func- 
tion. Samuel,  in  his  restoring  or  recasting  of  the 
national  polity,  gathered  them  in  groups  and  estab- 
lished schools  for  their  special  training.  Young  men 
of  forward  and  active  genius  would  throng  together 
in  them  to  learn  the  art  of  minstrelsy  and  the  use  of 
speech  and  writing,  together  with  such  mechanical  or 
medical  skill  as  the  age  could  furnish.  David's  faith- 
ful companion  in  exile  and  counsellor  in  the  decline 
of  his  strength,  the  prophet  Gad,  gives  a  probable  ex- 
ample of  the  associations  of  this  early  culture.  The 
prophetic  schools  were  a  noble  conception  of  the 
last  and  greatest  of  the  Judges,  remarkable  for  that 

*  1  Sam.  ix.  9.  f  Ibid.  x.  10,  xix.  20;  1  Kings  xviii.  4,  xxii.  6. 


SCHOOLS  OF  THE  PROPHETS.         255 

age,  and  invaluable  in  the  after  history  of  the  nation. 
They  furnished  the  rallying-point  of  intellect  and  re- 
ligious zeal.  The  sacred  traditions  and  early  records 
of  the  race  must  probably  have  perished  but  for  this 
germ  of  a  national  University.  The  arts  which  re- 
quire most  patient  and  elaborate  method  in  their 
learning  would  scarcely  have  existed  without  such 
aid.  The  very  forms  and  fragments  of  written  his- 
tory which  have  been  preserved  to  us  are  doubtless 
in  great  part  what  after  compilers  borrowed  from 
"  the  book  of  Samuel  the  seer,  and  the  book  of  Na- 
than the  prophet,  and  the  book  of  Gad  the  seer,"  or 
from  the  later  annals  of  Iddo  and  Shemaiah.*  So 
that,  for  whatever  made  the  Hebrews  great  as  a 
people,  or  gave  their  history  instruction  and  avail 
for  after  times,  they  were  mainly  indebted  to  that 
guardianship  which  Samuel  and  his  successors  ex- 
ercised over  the  frail  and  early  germs  of  their  mental 
hfe. 

Those  who  are  at  all  acquainted  with  the  religious 
history  of  the  East  will  be  at  no  loss  to  account  for 
the  profound  influence  at  all  times  exercised  upon  the 
popular  mind  by  this  body  of  enthusiastic,  earnest, 
and  comparatively  well-cultured  men.  Courses  of  a 
powerful  and  headlong  fanaticism  are  familiar  events 
in  that  history.  ReUgious  extravagance  and  frenzy 
are  familiar  facts  in  the  mental  physiology  of  Eastern 
races.  The  religious  terror  that  gave  its  crushing 
weight  to  Oriental  theocracy  was  easily  roused  by  any 

*  1  Chronicles  xxix.  29  ;  2  Chronicles  ix.  29.  The  books  of  Kings 
and  Chronicles  probably  afford  us  a  fair  comparison  between  the  men- 
tal qualities  of  the  prophets  and  the  priesthood. 


256  THE  PROPHETS. 

vision,  omen,  or  appeal,  whether  coming  in  the  course 
of  natural  events  or  in  the  word  of  an  inspired  man. 
What  might  not  be  easily  reconciled  to  a  cooler  tem- 
perament or  a  different  way  of  life  becomes  natural 
and  familiar  when  transferred  to  the  soil  of  the  East : 
where  to  the  wild  Arab  the  lonely  desert  is  still  popu- 
lous with  phantoms,  and  its  drear  silence  haunted 
with  misleading  demon-voices.*  The  dry  and  elec- 
tric air  may  have  its  subtile  influence,  or  the  fierce 
glare  of  the  sun,  or  the  mysterious  affinities  of  race, 
affecting  the  temperament  of  brain  and  nerve.  What 
we  know  is,  that  facts  rare  and  abnormal  in  Western 
climates  or  among  Western  races,  are  offered  daily  to 
the  incredulity  of  Eastern  travellers  ;  and  by  what- 
ever name  we  call  them,  they  must  greatly  affect 
our  judgment  of  visions  and  wonders  recounted 
among  such  a  people,  —  still  more  of  their  popular 
effect. 

The  same  quality  that  makes  one  man  a  seer  or 
enthusiast  will,  in  feebler  degree,  make  a  multitude 
susceptible  of  the  most  powerful  impression  from  his 
words.  To  the  Orientals  the  Franks  have  always 
seemed  cold  and  irreligious.  Among  themselves  the 
race  of  prophets  and  visionaries,  and  the  answering 
floods  of  popular  fanaticism,  never  cease.  The  sud- 
den triumphs  of  Islam  are  to  be  accounted  for  by  no 
device  of  imposture  or  lunacy,  but  by  laws  profoundly 
written  in  the  human  constitution  and  working  out 
under  the  influences  of  an  Eastern  clime.  A  roving 
Christian  preacher  at  this  day  will  rouse  to  passion- 
ate terror  the  whole  population  of  a  Moslem  town  by 

*  See  De  Quincey's  Essay  on  "  Modern  Superstitions." 


DIVINE  COMmSSION.  257 

his  prognostics  of  disaster ;  *  and  the  counterpart  of 
Hagar's  vision,  or  Elijah's  comforting  voices  in  the 
desert,  is  repeated  now  in  the  tales  of  the  Bedouin 
camp  and  the  warnings  of  the  hushed  march  of  the 
caravan.  Profoundly  susceptible,  like  all  Eastern 
races,  of  that  whole  class  of  influences  which  bor- 
der on  the  mysterious  and  supernatural,  the  Hebrew 
people  offered  just  the  requisite  field  for  the  expan- 
sion and  development  of  the  prophetic  gift.  •  United 
as  it  was  with  a  peculiar  culture,  and  that  intense 
and  singular  pertinacity  of  character  and  habit  be- 
longing to  the  race,  it  could  not  fail  to  become  the 
culminating  fact  of  their  mental  history. 

The  peculiar  constitution  of  the  state  itself  was 
based  on  a  conviction  that  made  part  of  the  very 
life  of  Hebrew  thought,  —  a  conviction  which  must 
powerfully  co-operate  with  the  quality  just  spoken 
of,  to  give  energy  and  effect  to  the  function  of  proph- 
ecy. The  "  people  of  Jehovah "  were  instructed  to 
ascribe  to  their  Divinity  both  the  direct  founding  of 
their  institutions  and  every  powerful  influence  that 
affected  their  destiny.  Everything  inexplicable  and 
unseen  must  necessarily  be  referred  to  him,  —  the 
more  certainly  the  more  nearly  it  bore  upon  their 
own  fortunes.  Even  such  fatal  events  as  the  great 
pestilence  of  David's  reign,  the  revolt  of  the  tribes, 
and  the  massacres  committed  by  Jehu,  are  ascribed 
to  his  express  interposition  and  forethought ;  and  the 
four  hundred  prophets  who  gave  Aliab  his  false  hopes 
of  victory  were  really  inspired  by  "  a  lying  spirit " 
from  Jehovah,  as  declared  in  Micaiah's  eloquent  story 

*  See  Layard's  "Babylon  and  Nineveh,"  p.  632. 

Q 


258  THE  PROPHETS. 

of  his   vision.*      Of   course,   a   man   powerfully  in 
earnest  must  derive  his  conviction  from   tlie   same 
source.     A   rapt  visionary,  a  poetical  declaimer,  a 
victorious  champion,  a  skilled  artificer,  a  sagacious 
and   confident   declarer  of  the   future,  a   successful 
practiser  of  healing,  or  one  who  should  exercise  the 
now  more  familiar  yet  inexplicable  power  of  finding 
hidden  water-springs,  or  controlling  mesmerically  the 
bodily  condition  of  others   to   hurt  or  heal,  would 
even  more  certainly  be  regarded  as  deriving  his  gift 
from  the  particular  favour  of  the  unseen  Sovereign. 
Here,  in  the  popular  feeling  and  .belief,  was  an  ally 
by  which  the  class  of  men  known  as  prophets  would 
be  most  powerfully  aided,  —  all  the  more  because  the 
feeling  and  conviction  were  their  own.     The  gift  of 
bodily  temperament  or  mental  genius,  of  which  tliey 
were  conscious,  they  were  expressly  taught  to  regard 
as  the  commission  or  favour  of  Jehovah.     A  man  of 
profound   feeling,   like   Jeremiah,   might    shrink   in 
trembling  and  tears  from  the  pressure  of  the  awful 
burden  ;  but  it  must  be  borne  nevertheless,  for  the 
commission  it  implied  could  never  once  be  doubted, 
—  a  commission  that  must  crush  every  scruple,  over- 
rule every  thought  of  policy,  and  still  every  throb  of 
fear.     A  barbarian  chieftain,  like  Jephthah,  or  one 
of  the  incorrigible  levity  of  Samson,  might  be  forti- 
fied by  believing  in  his  own  divine  legation,  though 
it  should  not  save  him  from  the  worst  superstition  or 
the  grossest  vice  ;  while  to  one  of  resolute  purpose, 
like  Samuel,  or  of  ardent  and  confident  convictiou, 
like  Isaiah,  the  same  belief  would  be  the  inspiration 

*  1  Kings  xxii.  19-23. 


RELATION  TO  THE  STATE.  259 

of  the  purest  moral  heroism.  However  shaded  or 
stained,  there  is  not  the  smallest  reason  to  doubt  that 
the  belief  was  real.  It  made  part  of  the  tempera- 
ment of  the  race  and  the  creed  of  the  religion.  It 
was  shared  alike  by  prophet  and  king,  by  priest 
and  people.  This  consideration  is  absolutely  essen- 
tial, if  we  would  estimate  correctly  a  single  one  of 
the  many  perplexing  phenomena  which  the  history 
of  prophecy  presents.  Whatever  else  they  were,  they 
w^re  not  acts  of  shrewd  jugglery  or  vulgar  impos- 
ture ;  but,  in  the  main,  the  acts  of  very  confident 
and  earnest  men,  who  were  instructed  to  believe 
thoroughly  that  what  they  did  or  thought  was  in- 
spired directly  by  their  nation's  God.  Both  in  their 
own  and  the  popular  belief,  they  were  in  the  strictest 
sense  ambassadors  or  representatives,  to  speak  before 
the  nation  messages  from  the  invisible  and  dread 
majesty  of  its  King. 

A  single  ,word  is  further  necessary  to  state  the 
true  relation  of  Prophecy  to  the  political  power  of 
the  realm.  It  seems  to  have  been  clearly  recognized 
and  deferred  to  as  a  co-ordinate  power  with  the  mon- 
archy, and  as  of  at  least  equal  authority.  The  theo- 
cratic constitution  of  the  Hebrews  acknowledged  one 
full  as  much  as  the  other.  Each  was  a  legitimate 
working  force.  Each  was  essential  to  the  existence 
and  the  true  development  of  the  state.  If  they  ever 
came  into  open  collision,  which  they  were  too  apt  to 
do,  certainly  the  divine  element  was  not  held  more 
guilty  of  criminal  ambition  than  the  human.  Nay, 
the  Hebrew  mind  would  probably  regard  it  as  right- 
fully paramount  on  the  whole,  however  ill-judged  at 


260  THE  PROPHETS. 

times  we  may  regard  its  opposition  ;  and  what  would 
be  punished  as  treason  or  usurpation  in  a  modern 
state  offered  no  violence  to  that  vague  and  simple 
polity.  The  high-handed  control  of  Samuel  over  the 
royalty  he  had  ordained  ;  the  political  revolutions 
set  on  foot  by  Elisha ;  the  practical  statesmanship  of 
Isaiah,  who  at  a  moment  of  extreme  peril  displaced 
Hezekiah's  chief  minister  of  state  and  inaugurated  a 
most  hazardous  change  of  policy;  the  baffling  re- 
monstrance of  Jeremiah  against  the  last  desperate 
defence  of  the  capital,  —  have  all  been  censured  from 
the  point  of  view  of  modern  custom ;  *  but  the  power 
that  controlled  the  event  in  each  of  these  instances 
was  unquestionably  felt  to  be  a  legitimate  power  in 
the  state,  however  opposed  to  a  "  parliamentary  re- 
gime," or  the  rude  Erastianism  of  a  democracy. 

Doubtless  it  was  perplexing  to  lay  down  rules  to 
govern  the  fluctuating  and  unstable  equilibrium  of 
the  two  powers,  spiritual  and  temporal ;  impossible 
often  to  secure  the  needful  independence  of  the  exec- 
utive in  the  task  of  public  defence  against  the  sudden 
assault  of  a  divine  fury  or  an  irresponsible  enthusiasm. 
What  form  of  government  is  without  its  own  particu- 
lar weak  point  ?  Yet,  whatever  the  risk,  it  was  one 
which  the  genius  of  the  Hebrew  state  made  inevita- 
ble, one  which  its  lawgivers  deliberately  assumed. 
The  national  existence  itself  might  be  put  at  hazard, 
as  in  Saul's  feud  with  the  religious  party,  by  the 
conflicts  of  policy  that  set  prophet  and  king  at  vari- 
ance ;  l3ut  no  limit  was  suffered  to  be  put  to  the 
"  liberty  of  prophesying."     Jeremiah's  proclamations 

*  See  Newman's  "  Hebrew  Monarchy." 


FALSE  PROPHETS.  261 

of  disaster  might  unnerve  the  city's  defenders  in  the 
very  crisis  of  a  siege  ;  but  he  pleads  the  precedent  of 
Micah,  and  cannot  be  forbidden.  Shebna  might  pro- 
test in  behalf  of  a  prudent  policy,  but  Isaiah's  elo- 
quent and  indignant  boldness  gets  the  victory.  At 
most,  some  uncertain  test  was  offered  to  distinguish 
true  from  false  ;  but,  provided  the  profession  of  loyal- 
ty to  Jehovah  was  unequivocal,  nothing  but  tyran- 
nical violence  and  usurpation  could  bridle  the  enthu- 
siast, or  even  silence  the  impostor.  The  Hebrew 
constitutional  law  abode  courageously  by  the  maxims 
of  a  primitive  devoutness,  and  the  express  edict  of 
the  state  *  sanctioned  that  reverence  towards  the  man 
of  God  which  made  part  of  the  popular  religion. 

Among  the  multitude  whether  of  graduates  from 
the  prophetic  seminary  or  of  solitary  and  self-taught 
men,  the  qualities  of  wisdom,  devotion,  and  even 
mental  honesty,  were  far  from  universal.  In  the 
Scripture  record,  "  false  prophets  "  appear  nearly  as 
often  as  the  true ;  and  some  of  the  most  striking 
scenes  of  the  prophetic  history  are  those  of  conflict 
waged  against  them.  The  distinction  is  in  many 
cases  quite  independent  of  false  worships  and  alien 
superstitions.  It  is  drawn  among  those  who  claim, 
with  equal  apparent  sincerity,  the  sanction  and  inspi- 
ration of  Jehovah. f  Nay,  so  far  is  it  from  always 
implying  a  false  pretension,  that  of  Zedekiah  and  his 
four  hundred  (just  referred  to)  it  is  expressly  said 
that  "  Jehovah  put  a  lying  spirit  in  their  mouth." 
The  distinction  is  not  only  very  embarrassing  to  the 
critic  now,  but  it  was  at  least  equally  so  to  the  law- 

*  Deuteronomy  xviii.  18,  19.  t  Ibid,  xviii.  22. 


262  THE  PROPHETS. 

makers  of  the  Hebrews  themselves.  Infinitely  dis- 
tressing in  its  perplexity,  in  the  religious  terrors  and 
counter-terrors  that  grew  from  it,  it  must  have  been 
to  the  people,  —  perhaps  in  apprehension  of  some  dis- 
aster, perhaps  under  the  scourge  of  some  affliction. 
It  is  probably  to  be  fully  comprehended  only  by  a 
better  understanding  than  we  possess  of  the  condi- 
tions of  religious  progress  among  the  Hebrews,  and 
the  steps  by  which  a  new  order  of  ideas  crowded  out 
the  old.  The  state  of  Israel,  doubtless,  offers  no  ex- 
ception to  the  "  natural  history  of  enthusiasm,"  or 
the  laws  of  growth  observed  in  heresies.  What  we 
read  of  as  false  prophets  then  would  be  reckoned 
now  as  factious  sectaries,  or  dissenters  from  the 
stricter  creed,  —  if  our  modern  standard  could  meas- 
ure the  dim  proportions  of  such  ancient  heresy. 
Emphatic  and  repeated  warnings  are  given  to  "  be- 
ware of  false  prophets ; "  but  at  a  time  when  the 
rancour  of  recent  revolution  made  a  test  of  falsity 
especially  desirable,  the  law  is  fluctuating  and  uncer- 
tain. At  one  time,  prophecy  takes  the  sense  of  pre- 
diction, and  is  to  be  proved  by  the  event.  At 
another,  neither  miracle  nor  true  prediction,  is  a 
sufficient  test,  but  only  fidelity  to  the  law  already 
established,  and  to  the  exclusive  worship  of  Jeho- 
vah.* In  the  later  period  of  the  monarchy  the  col- 
lision of  the  true  and  false  became  very  frequent,  as 
testified  by  Jeremiah  and  Ezekiel,  —  a  natural  conse- 
quence of  revolutions  within  the  state,  and  of  an  ir- 
regular progress  of  religious  thought  stimulated  from 
abroad.      But   so   few  are   our  monuments  and  so 

*  See  Deuteronomy  xviii.  22  ;  xiii.  2,  3. 


WAY   OF   LIFE   AND  INFLUENCE.  263 

imperfect  our  knowledge  of  the  time,  that  we  cannot 
draw  the  line  of  heresy  with  much  more  certainty 
than  has  now  been  done.  We  can  only  add,  that  the 
true  faith  of  Israel  may  be  assumed  as  that  which 
history  has  preserved  and  ratified  ;  and  that  those 
prophets  whose  acts  and  words  have  survived  to  us, 
have  at  least  their  nation's  verdict  that  they  are  its 
authentic  spokesmen. 

Neither  can  the  entire  amount  and  drift  of  their 
influence  upon  their  countrymen  be  determined  with 
much  greater  confidence  than  has  already  been  im- 
plied in  the  description  of  their  office.  Some  have 
compared  them  to  the  mendicant  or  preaching  friars 
of  the  Roman  Church,  as  messengers  and  agents  of 
the  hierarchy  among  the  people.  Some  have  imag- 
ined them  as  forming  a  sort  of  "opposition  clubs" 
in  the  Hebrew  state.  Such  conjectures,  though  they 
may  do  a  little  to  pique  the  imagination,  are  quite 
as  likely  to  lead  it  astray  from  the  fact.  The  clear- 
est picture  we  have  of  the  prophets'  way  of  life 
is  found  in  the  remarkable  episode  in  the  history 
of  the  Kings  which  details  the  acts  of  Elijah  and 
Elisha.  Here  they  appear  as  the  instructors  and 
familiar  companions  of  the  people.  They  dwell 
either  in  strange  solitudes,  like  the  first,  or,  like 
EUsha,  in  industrial  communities,  fathers  of  the 
monastic  life.  From  these  retreats  they  go  forth, 
or  send  out  their  trusty  messengers,  to  the  special 
service  which  the  time  demands.  They  are  bold  to 
rebuke  tyranny,  stanch  champions  of  the  faith  of 
Israel,  tender  in  their  sympathy  with  a  people  under 
oppression,  stern  and  unflinching  when  the  time  comes 


264  THE  PROPHETS. 

to  avenge  upon  a  guilty  dynasty  the  arrears  of  accu- 
mulated wrong.  They  are  skilful  in  the  treatment 
of  maladies  with  simple  remedies,  whether  by  human 
or  superhuman  means  ;  practised  observers  botli  of 
natural  phenomena  and  political  events  ;  adepts,  ap- 
parently, in  the  rude  handicraft  and  simple  science 
of  the  day.  Knowledge  and  skill  beyond  the  ordi- 
nary reach  of  men  are  ascribed  to  supernatural  aid, 
and  recounted  in  tales  of  wonder.  To  predict  a 
change  of  sky  and  to  foil  a  hostile  policy  are  among 
the  examples  related  of  prophetic  skill.  The  notion 
of  Divine  agency  conveyed  in  the  narration  is  often 
uutempered  and  harsh.  The  prophet  becomes  a 
messenger  of  God's  vengeance  as  well  as  of  his 
mercy.  The  healing  of  a  leper  or  the  blasting  of 
a  company  of  men  by  Divine  fire,  the  restoring  of 
a  dead  child  to  its  mother  or  the  tearing  of  more 
than  forty  by  bears  out  of  a  wood  when  Elisha 
"  turned  and  cursed  them"  for  their  childish  mock- 
ery, are  told  with  equal  unconcern,  as  parts  of  the 
same  marvellous  tale,  superseding  all  human  judg- 
ment of  equity  or  cruelty.  But  of  far  more  value 
than  any  such  narratives  as  these  is  the  picture  which 
is  suggested  of  the  prophet's  way  of  life  in  that  early 
time,  —  the  real  tenderness  and  confidence  of  his 
intercourse  with  the  people,  —  the  mingling  of  his 
personal  agency  in  the  great  events  of  war  or  state 
policy  which  were  acting  out  around  him.  It  is  a 
picture  of  one  portion  of  the  old  Hebrew  life,  with- 
out which  our  knowledge  of  that  people  would  be 
quite  otherwise  incomplete  than  it  is.  And  it  leaves 
us  little  to  ask,  except  those  questions,  forever  vain, 


LANGUAGE  OF  SYMBOLS.  265 

touching  the  exact  degree  of  religious  development 
then  reached,  and  the  real  nature  of  the  controver- 
sies which  we  discern  so  dimly  among  the  obscure 
movements  of  the  earlier  Hebrew  thought. 

From  the  manner  of  instruction  employed,  we  may 
infer  the  untaught  simplicity  of  the  minds  the  proph- 
ets addressed,  as  well  as  something  of  their  own 
style  of  genius.  The  language  of  symbols  —  some- 
times ingenious  and  suggestive,  sometimes  grotesque 
and  quaint  —  is  the  favourite  language  of  popular 
address.  The  touching  simplicity  of  Nathan's  par- 
able of  the  ewe-lamb  is  an  example  standing  nearly 
by  itself,  wherein  the  imagery  is  more  delicate  and 
pure,  and  the  peculiar  style  of  Hebrew  religious  teach- 
ing is  shown  in  its  most  pleasing  form.  The  pro- 
phetic imagery,  or  symbolic  language,  detailed  in  act 
or  speech,  is  generally  of  a  ruder  and  coarser  sort. 
Zedekiah  binds  iron  horns  to  his  forehead  and  butts 
with  them  to  signify  that  Ahab  shall  push  victoriously 
against  the  Syrians.  Hosea  takes  for  his  wife  a  wo- 
man of  notorious  ill  life,  to  illustrate  the  infidelity  of 
Israel  in  its  nuptial  relation  to  Jehovah.  Isaiah 
walks  openly  for  three  years  "  naked  and  barefoot," 
or  in  the  squalid  garb  of  a  captive,  to  picture  the 
coming  servitude  of  the  Egyptians.  A  characteristic 
part  of  Jeremiah's  ministry  consists  in  a  variety  of 
symbolic  acts  which  might  easily  seem  trivial  in  the 
telling,  though  doubtless  effective  and  serious  enough 
in  the  acting ;  and  in  his  predicting  of  subjugation 
he  loads  his  shoulders  with  a  yoke,  which  the  bolder 
Hananiah  breaks,  to  reverse  the  omen,  or  emblematic 
sense. 

12 


266  THE  PROPHETS. 

From  pictorial  or  symbolic  acts  the  prophetic  style 
easily  ascended  into  language  of  the  same  character- 
istic quality.  The  vast  and  vague  magnificence  of 
the  Hebrew  imagery  is  the  most  marked  feature  in 
that  literature  and  the  familiar  representative  to  us 
of  the  national  genius  ;  by  the  consent  of  critics,  it 
has  become  our  conventional  standard  of  the  sublime. 
Nothing  in  the  writings  of  any  age,  excepting  what 
has  been  directly  inspired  from  that  source,  surpasses 
the  grandeur  of  the  images  in  which  the  Hebrew 
prophets  discourse  of  the  state  and  sovereignty  of  Je- 
hovah, or  menace  the  doom  of  a  profligate  tyranny. 
The  stern  and  obscure  brevity  of  their  style,  con- 
densing the  images  of  a  pictorial  fancy,  has  given 
the  writers  of  this  people  a  hold  upon  the  imagina- 
tion of  later  ages  such  that  they  must  always  be  the 
grand  examples  of  this  one  element  in  the  litera- 
ture of  the  world.  Nothing,  indeed,  gives  us  so 
high  a  notion  of  the  general  quality  of  the  Hebrew 
mind,  as  the  fact  that  these  nobler  passages  of  lan- 
guage, whether  prophetic  ode  or  vision  or  religious 
appeal,  were  portions  of  real  and  living  address, — 
employed  to  move  the  popular  conscience  to  a 
definite  end,  or  to  shape  the  actual  policy  of  the 
state. 

Enough  has  appeared,  from  time  to  time,  in  the 
course  of  the  foregoing  narrative,  to  enable  us  easily 
to  generalize  the  history  of  the  prophetical  office,  by 
casting  it  into  tliree  well-marked  periods.  The  first 
is  the  period  of  unwritten  prophecy,  lasting  down  to 
the  age  of  Elisha,  and  its  general  features  have 
already  been  sufficiently  described.      The  third,  or 


WRITTEN  PROPHECY.  267 

latest  period,  including  such  compositions  as  ap- 
peared during  the  Captivity,  or  later,  belongs  to  an- 
other place.  There  remains  the  second,  or  the  earlier 
period  of  written  prophecy,  commencing  about  the 
middle  of  the  ninth  century  before  Christ,  and  termi- 
nating with  the  fall  of  Jerusalem.  This  period  begins 
with  Joel  and  ends  with  Jeremiah,  covering  a  space 
of  about  two  hundred  and  fifty  years. 

It  was  during  this  time,  or  the  latter  half  of  the 
monarchy,  that  these  chief  monuments  of  the  Hebrew 
mind  were  wrought ;  and  probably,  along  with  them, 
a  large  proportion  of  the  remaining  Scripture  was 
either  for  the  first  time  written,  or  at  least  cast  in  its 
present  shape.  So  that  this  is  the  most  prolific  and 
active  period  of  the  national  genius,  and  that  which 
most  fully  exhibits  to  us  the  intellectual  character  of 
that  people.  The  changing  fortunes  of  the  state 
would  stimulate  all  men  to  whatever  mental  activity 
they  were  capable  of,  while  perpetual  encounter  with 
other  nations  would  bring  out  in  strong  relief  the 
peculiar  qualities  of  thought  that  characterize  the 
race.  Thus  another  ground  of  interest  is  suggested 
in  this  discussion ;  since  the  period  under  review  will 
give  us  a  point  of  departure  by  which  we  may  meas- 
ure the  mental  advance  made  afterwards,  under  a 
difierent  set  of  influences. 

Those  occasions  in  the  history  which  brought  for- 
ward, one  after  another,  the  series  of  the  prophets, 
have  been  already  briefly  noticed,  and  need  not  be 
repeated  here.  The  questions  remaining  to  be  con- 
sidered are,  what  is  the  style  of  religious  thought  to 
be  discerned  in  them  ;  and  especially  what  is  their 


268  THE  PROPHETS. 

true  interpretation  with  respect  to  the  religious  life, 
hopes,  and  progress  of  humanity  ?  * 

The  first  obvious  thing  that  occurs  to  us,  as  we 
glance  along  the  line  of  honoured  names,  is  that  the 
series  culminates  near  midway,  in  the  glorious  hopes 
and  visions,  the  firm  attitude  of  religious  confidence, 
the  exultation  arising  from  an  unlooked-for  deliver- 
ance, and  the  generous  and  wise  temper  of  an  en- 
larged charity,  associated  with  the  name  and  public 
ministry  of  Isaiah.  The  eldest  of  the  company  are 
harsh  and  brief,  bitter  in  their  denouncing,  vindic- 

*  The  following  brief  outline,  or  recapitulation,  is  condensed  from 
Ewald,  "  Die  Propheten  des  Alten  Bundes."  The  dates  are  only 
approximate :  — 

B.  C.  830.  Joel,  in  the  reign  of  Araaziah,  bewails  a  plague  of 
locusts,  and  censures  the  neglect  of  sacrifice.  Atonement  being  made, 
he  predicts  the  divine  favour  to  Judah,  conquest  and  slavery  to  Edom, 
Tyre,  and  Egypt. 

B.  C.  800.  Amos,  a  missionary  in  the  northern  kingdom,  details  the 
splendour  and  prosperity  of  the  reign  of  Jeroboam  II.,  together  with  its 
oppression,  riots,  licentiousness,  and  idolatry.  The  Assyrian  power 
threatened. 

B.  C.  770.  HosEA,  the  last  prophet  of  the  northern  kingdom,  speaks 
of  the  idolatry,  etc.  at  the  close  of  .Jeroboam's  reign,  and  the  convul- 
sions succeeding ;  factions,  seeking  foreign  aid.  He  suffers  persecution 
and  exile. 

B.  C.  750-700.  Isaiah  :  his  visions  and  consecration  (ch,  vi.) ;  early 
Assyrian  conquests  (ii.  2 -v.  25;  ix.  8-x.  4;  v.  26-30) ;  their  further 
advance  (xvii.  1-11);  invasion  by  Pekah  and  Eezin  (vii.  1-ix.  7); 
warning  to  PhiUstines  (xiv.  28-32);  to  Moab  (ch.  xv.,  xvi.);  to  Du- 
mah  and  Arabian  tribes  (xxi.  11-17);  to  Damascus  (ch.  xxiii.)  ; 
imminent  invasion  of  Assyrians  (i.  2-31,  —  the  remonstrance  was 
effectual,  in  Hezekiah's  reforms);  base  treaty  with  them;  charges 
against  Shebna  (xxii.  1-25) ;  proposed  Egyptian  alliance  (ch.  xxviii. 
-xxxii.  and  xx.) ;  promised  deliverance  from  Assyria  (x.  5-xii.  6); 
message  to  Ethiopians  (xvii.  12-xviii.  7;  xiv.  24-27);  defiance  of 
Sennacherib  (ch.  xxxiii.;  xxxviii.  22-35);  national  judgments,  result- 
ing in  restoration  of  the  true  faith ;  alliance  and  harmony  of  Egypt, 
Assyria,  and  Judah  (ch.  xix.). 


PROPHETIC   WRITINGS.  269 

tive  in  their  threatening.  The  later  have  more  of 
despondency  than  hope,  express  rather  complaint 
than  confidence  :  so  that  we  feel,  for  Jeremiah  espe- 
cially, rather  sympathy  in  the  sorrow  of  his  burden 
than  gladness  and  honour  for  his  bearing  of  it.  We 
cannot  nicely  discriminate  the  temper  of  the  different 
stages,  where  all  is  at  once  so  strongly  national  and 
so  intensely  personal.  Yet,  with  the  culminating  of 
this  period  of  the  nation's  life  in  the  reign  of  Heze- 
kiali,  we  feel  that  the  richest  harvest  of  Hebrew 
thought  is  gathered  ;  that  what  went  before  was  of 

B.  C.  750.  Unknown  (Zech.  ix.  1  -xi.  17  ;  xiii.  7-9),  parallel  with 
Isaiah,  ch.  ix.,  but  referring  to  the  northern  kingdom. 

B.  C.  720.  MiCAH  :  parallel  with  Isaiah  ch.  x.  -xii.,  etc.  (see  p.  191) ; 
false  prophets  and  unfaithful  statesmen ;  decay  of  faith ;  destruction  of 
city  and  temple  apprehended. 

B.  C.  650.  Nahum,  an  exile  in  Assyria :  threatened  destruction  of 
Nineveh  and  Thebes  by  Medes. 

B.  C.  630.  Zephaniah  :  terror  at  inroad  of  Scythians  ;  deliverance 
can  come  only  after  judgment. 

B.  C.  600.  Habakkuk  :  invasion  of  Scythians  and  Chaldees,  after 
Josiah;  no  allusion  to  old  offences,  but  the  new  lesson  of  trust  in 
hopeless  calamity. 

B.  C.  588.  Unknown  (Zech.  xii.  1  -  xiii.  6 ;  ch.  xiv.,  written  just 
before  the  destruction  of  Jerusalem)  :  a  dweller  in  the  country;  he 
confides  in  the  deliverance  of  the  city,  while  Jeremiah  desponds. 

B.  C.  585.  Obadiah  (after  the  fall  of  Jerusalem) :  the  malignant 
vengeance  of  Edom,  to  be  revenged  by  Arab  marauders. 

B.  C.  620-580.  Jeremiah:  personal  incidents,  appeals,  predic- 
tions, etc.,  giving  a  full  picture  of  the  siege  and  fall  of  Jerusalem ; 
struggles  with  persecutions;  confuting  of  delusive  predictions  of  tri- 
umph. 

B.  C.  590-570.  EzEKiEL  (one  of  the  earlier  exiles;  "rather  a 
-writer  than  a  prophet") :  visions  of  the  restored  Theocracy. 

Unknown  (Isaiah,  ch.  xl.-lxvi.  the  great  prophet  of  the  captiv- 
ity, living  probably  in  Egypt ;  by  Bunsen  considered  to  be  Baruch,  the 
sciibe  of  Jeremiah) :  general  and  exalted  predictions  of  restoration,  the 
higher  destiny  of  Israel,  and  the  Messiah. 


270  THE  PROrHETS. 

crude  unripeness,  that  what  is  later  will  be  the  more 
spare  and  solitary  gleaning.  The  declining  light  is 
often  more  gentle  and  soft,  but  it  has  not  the  fresh 
glory  of  the  day. 

In  estimating  these  works  as  literary  compositions, 
we  have  to  remember  that  they  are  only  relics  and 
specimens  of  what  was  probably  a  large  mass  of 
similar  address,  written  or  unwritten.  It  was  not 
till  the  later  period  that  prophecy  became  a  literature 
by  main  intention.  Such  compositions  as  those  of 
Ezekiel,  or  the  magnificent  chapters  appended  to  the 
book  of  Isaiah,  may  have  been  the  production  of 
more  cultivated  minds,  wrought  out  in  solitary  study. 
But  the  earlier  prophets  spoke  or  acted  as  the  occa- 
sion moved,  and  to  an  instant  practical  end,  of  warn- 
ing, rebuke,  or  cheer.  The  writing  down  of  their 
message  was  an  afterthought,  and  was  left  till  the 
imminency  of  the  occasion  had  passed  by.  Indeed, 
by  the  peculiar  genius  of  the  Hebrew  tongue  much 
is  wrought  up  in  the  impassioned  style  of  prediction 
or  appeal,  which  a  more  cultured  dialect  would  have 
discriminated  in  the  colder  tone  of  history,  —  being 
written  or  recast  years  perhaps  after  it  was  deliv- 
ered, and  when  the  contingency  foretold  was  already 
past.*  It  was  in  the  retreat  from  persecution,  or  in 
the  loneliness  of  exile,  that  Amos  and  Hosea  com- 
posed their  elaborate  pictures  of  the  declining  state 
of  Israel,  embodying  the  symbols  and  appeals  they 
had  employed  in  their  active  ministry  ;  and  Isaiah's 
noble  ode  of  defiance  was  unquestionably  written 
down  after  the  tumult  and  terror  of  the  invasion  had 

♦  See  Isaiah  xxx.  8 :  Jeremiah  xxxvi.  2. 


PROPHETIC  WRITINGS.  271 

passed  away.  So  that  the  writing  is  in  some  regards 
an  uncertain  reflection  of  the  speech,  while  the  speech 
suggests  the  type  and  affords  the  criterion  by  which 
to  judge  the  more  elaborate  writing.  Much  of  the 
abrupt  and  lively  manner  is  retained ;  the  symbolic 
acts  are  detailed  in  all  their  freshness ;  while,  in  the 
fashion  of  the  popular  speaker,  fragments  of  address 
are  interspersed,  suggested  by  the  occasion,  or  direct- 
ed to  a  particular  class  of  hearers.*  Not  only  the 
fitness  of  the  language  or  order  of  ideas  must  be 
measured  by  the  needs  of  the  occasion,  but  the 
thought  itself  is  often  disguised  in  a  symbol  of  doubt- 
ful interpretation.  It  is  only  with  considerable  free- 
dom of  criticism,  and  with  the  allowance  of  a  wide 
margin  of  uncertainty,  that  we  can  trace  at  all  the 
course  of  positive  opinion  hinted  in  the  prophets  ; 
still  less  can  we  ascertain  the  real  condition  of  the 
popular  belief.  Besides  the  general  character  of  the 
Hebrew  literature  and  institutions,  already  described, 
a  few  more  striking  passages  of  imagery,  or  veins  of 
religious  thought,  are.  all  we  have  to  mark  the  ad- 
vance of  mind  in  that  age,  and  ascertain  its  amount 
of  preparation  for  a  later  and  higher  culture. 

In  our  estimate  of  the  mind  of  this  period,  we 
must  take  into  account,  furthermore,  such  composi- 
tions as  the  Book  of  Job  and  many  of  the  Psalms  ; 
which  not  only,  as  seems  likely,  belong  here  in  point 
of  time,  but  are  genuine  prophetical  writings  as  much 
as  any,  if  we  adopt  the  only  consisteiit  interpretation 
of  this  phrase.     Aided  by  these,  our  estimate  of  the 

*  As,  for  example,  to  women.     See  Amos  iv.  1  -  3 ;  Isaiah  iii.  16- 
iv.  1,  xxxii.  9-12. 


272  THE  PROPHETS. 

truth  and  spirituality  of  religious  ideas  among  the 
Hebrews  will  be  very  greatly  enhanced.  We  may 
except  to  many  a  special  image  or  point  of  view  ;  but 
religious  writings  that  have  survived  so  many  revolu- 
tions of  human  thought,  and  still  hold  their  place  in 
the  general  reverence  and  affection,  must  in  some 
essential  regards  be  alike  beyond  our  censure  or  our 
praise. 

The  religious  significance  of  such  writings  lies 
not  so  much  in  clearness  of  outline  or  distinctness 
of  intellectual  view  as  in  the  tone  and  elevation  of 
thought.  It  would  be  idle  to  go  to  them  for  instruc- 
tion on  particular  points  of  faith,  save  as  instruction 
may  be  hinted  in  their  often  spontaneous  and  fervid 
utterance  of  a  spiritual  fact.  To  construct  a  theologi- 
cal scheme,  even  to  require  consistency  of  religious 
opinion,  could  not  possibly  have  entered  into  the 
mind  of  that  day.  The  faith  which  the  prophets 
demanded  was  a  moral  quality.  It  was  loyalty  to 
Israel's  God  ;  fidelity  in  the  line  of  service  which  the 
conscience  of  that  time  could  apprehend.  The  spir- 
itual attributes  of  the  Almighty  were  never  presented 
with  any  consistency  or  clearness ;  neither  the  pre- 
cise relation  in  which  outward  acts  of  faith  stood  to 
the  Divine  ordinance  and  will.  Sovereign  power, 
bare  and  absolute,  made  the  basis  of  the  popular 
conception  of  Jehovah's  rule,  modified  only  by  such 
special  favours  as  he  bestowed  on  his  chosen  people. 
"  I  form  the  light  and  create  darkness,  I  make  peace 
and  create  evil,"  is  the  language  the  prophets  ascribe 
to  him ;  and  the  sublime  passages  of  the  Book  of  Job 
crush  the  mind  under  the  awful  sense  of  his  irresisti- 


RELATION  TO   PRIESTHOOD.  273 

ble  and  unquestioned  sovereignty,  before  its  calmer 
lesson  is  given,  of  trust  in  his  equal  recompense. 

Again,  the  prophets,  as  moved  by  an  intenser  and 
clearer  moral  sense,  stood  often  in  the  attitude  of 
protestants  and  reformers,  as  regarded  the  priesthood 
or  the  ritual ;  but  not  always,  or  in  any  such  sense 
as  to  represent  an  opposition  party,  or  even  to  indicate 
any  decided  advance  in  that  direction.  Their  lan- 
guage or  their  attitude  was  determined  partly  by  the 
temper  of  the  time  they  had  to  meet,  partly  by  the 
conduct  of  the  priesthood  and  the  overgrowth  or  de- 
cay of  ritual  observances.  Instead  of  heaping  weight 
in  a  single  scale,  they  seem  rather  to  have  laboured 
to  keep  that  degree  of  equilibrium  of  form  and  spirit 
which  to  the  Hebrew  conscience  would  best  represent 
the  normal  condition  of  things.  The  extravagances  of 
religious  independence  were  no  more  to  be  admitted 
than  the  deadening  oppression  of  a  corrupt  formalism. 
Joel  —  of  a  priest's  family,  and  perhaps  a  priest  him- 
self—  calls  for  a  sacrificial  atonement  to  avert  the 
visiting  scourge ;  while,  with  Amos,  God  will  accept 
no  sacrifice,  but  demands  that  "  judgment  run  down 
as  waters,  and  righteousness  as  a  mighty  stream." 
Isaiah  and  Micah,  in  the  golden  age  of  prophecy,  vin- 
dicate the  moral  as  far  above  the  ritual  meaning  of 
the  code,  and  Jeremiah  denies  that  sacrifices  were 
ever  the  Divine  command  ;  *  while  Ezekiel,  at  a  later 
day,  exhibits  the  most  elaborate  and  painful  formal- 
ism of  all,  along  with  the  severest  invective  against 
past  abuses.  If  there  is  such  a  thing  as  unity  of  pur- 
pose among  the  whole  number  of  the  prophets,  it  is 

*  Isaiah,  ch.  i. ;  Micah  vi.  8 ;  Jeremiah  vii.  22. 
12*  K 


274  THE  PROPHETS. 

at  any  rate  concealed  under  that  diversity  of  circum- 
stance which  gave  shape  and  colour  to  their  appeal. 

As  to  the  invisible  world,  the  prophetic  visions 
only  reproduce  the  familiar  images  of  regal  state, 
enhanced  by  the  splendours  of  such  symbolism  as  we 
find  wrought  out  in  the  imposing  works  of  Egypt 
and  Assyria,*  where  winged  figures  are  emblematic 
of  God's  swift  decree,  and  the  human  countenance 
of  the  seraph  denotes  that  wisdom  which  men  but 
faintly  apprehend.  The  hierarchy  of  the  heavenly 
hosts,  with  the  characteristic  names  of  the  archan- 
gels, belong  to  the  fancies  of  a  mythology  not  yet 
learned.  An  angel,  in  the  earlier  Hebrew  belief, 
was  but  an  envoy  of  Jehovah,  sent  on  some  special 
errand ;  the  "  thrones,  dominions,  and  powers  of 
heavenly  places,"  so  vividly  presented  in  the  poetic 
imagery  of  a  later  age,  made  part  of  that  more  gor- 
geous and  positive  creed  adopted  during  the  long 
sojourn  in  the  East. 

The  shadowy  realm  of  the  Departed,  the  abode  of 
gloom  and  dreariness,  which  is  the  only  relief  to  tlie 
blank  oblivion  that  follows  death,  is  of  a  piece  with 
the  untaught  and  fanciful  mythology  which  prevailed 
among  every  ancient  people,  till  its  dark  shade  was 
illumined  by  the  dawning  light  of  immortality.  Job 
hints,  with  pathetic  patience,  his  trust  in  a  living 
Redeemer,  who  shall  vindicate  him  from  the  heavy 
reproach  of  guilt,  and  so  take  away  the  sting  of  his 
calamity ;  but  the  clear  and  positive  anticipation  of  a 
life  to  come  made  no  part  of  the  Hebrew  faith.  At 
best,  its  dismal  imagery  could  make  the  apparition 

*  See  especially  Isaiah,  eh.  vi. ;  Ezekiel,  eh.  i. ;  Hab.,  cli.  iii. 


STYLE   OF   OPINION.  275 

of  Samuel  a  real  terror  to  the  conscience  of  the 
shuddering  king,  or  give  force  and  vividness  to  the 
gloomy  sublimity  of  Isaiah's  image  of  the  powers  of 
the  under-world  moved  to  meet  the  oppressor  at  his 
coming,  or  startle  us  with  the  story  of  a  dead  man 
restored  to  life  at  the  touch  of  the  sacred  relics  of  a 
prophet.  The  apprehension  of  a  future  state  was 
distinct  enough  to  haunt  the  imagination  and  clothe 
itself  in  forms  of  a  religious  fancy,  but  not  to  sug- 
gest any  profound  lessons  of  retribution,  or  minister 
comfort  in  anguish,  or  furnish  the  key  to  a  ritual 
symbolism,  or  vindicate  the  mystery  of  a  half-hidden 
Providence.  It  required  the  teaching  of  another 
order  of  events,  and  the  contact  of  another  system 
of  belief,  to  develop  in  the  Hebrew  mind  the  latent 
faith  in  the  Unseen,  and  so  complete  the  circle  of  its 
religious  thought. 

As  an  intellectual  system,  nothing  could  be  more 
simple  and  undefined  than  the  theology  assumed  by 
the  Hebrew  prophets,  beyond  the  few  points  that 
have  now  been  named.  As  such,  they  did  not  much 
to  develop  or  extend  it.  Their  real  office  was  in 
part  as  its  preservers,  bringing  the  mind  of  the 
people  continually  back  upon  the  faith  and  loyalty 
which  were  from  of*  old  their  noblest  attribute  ;  and 
in  part  as  its  reformers,  testifying  in  the  name  of 
Jehovah  against  many  forms  of  abuse,  and  by  the 
very  honesty  of  their  purpose  insensibly  enhancing 
their  own  and  the  popular  sense  of  right.  When 
their  task  was  done,  and  the  career  of  their  nation 
closed,  the  animosity  or  narrowness  due  to  the  pres- 
sure of  their  time  would  gradually  subside ;  so  that 


276  THE  PROPHETS. 

their  true  legacy  to  after  ages  would  be  the  residue 
of  higher  thought,  and  single-hearted  zeal  which  it 
was  their  mission  to  associate  forever  with  the  name 
and  worship  of  Jehovah. 

Barred  by  the  narrowness  of  their  creed  from  the 
vast  and  illimitable  spaces  of  a  heavenly  Future,  and 
alike  from  the  vision  of  a  reign  of  humanity  upon 
earth,  their  faith  in  the  providence  of  God,  as  manifest 
in  Israel,  concentrated  itself  in  a  boundless  and  be- 
nignant hope  for  their  own  chosen  people.  Early  in 
the  prophetic  history,  and  especially  when  the  gloom 
of  the  present  prospect  required  the  strong  contrast  of 
a  positive  glory  in  the  future,  we  find  the  dawn  of  the 
"Messianic  prophecy."*  There  seems  almost  a  wilful 
positiveness  and  grandeur  in  the  confident  assertions 
of  triumph  made  so  often  under  the  very  pressure  of 
impending  ruin.  That  it  was  a  real  and  sustaining 
faith,  that,  in  spite  of  a  thousand  defeats  and  cen- 
turies of  disappointmentj  it  remains  so  to  this  day,  is 
the  singular  glory  of  the  Hebrew  race,  —  like  one  ray 
of  Divine  light  resting  upon  it  through  the  dark  and 
dreadful  humiliation  it  has  sustained.  If  its  original 
meaning  were  never  to  be  verified,  yet  the  hidden  and 
unintended  meaning,  which  gave  an  unflagging  cour- 
age, which  revived  the  perishing  germ  of  nationality, 
which  nourished  a  sacred  zeal  by  lingering  and  pre- 
cious memories,  and  prepared  the  world's  welcome 
for  the  "  Father  of  an  everlasting  age  and  Prince  of 
Peace,"  was  a  divine  prophecy  of  truth  given  and 
heard  unawares.  The  words  it  was  spoken  in  may 
seem  to  us  the  natural  utterance  of  the  occasion, 

*  See  Joel  ii.  28,  iii.  17  ;  Isaiah  vii.  14,  ix.  1-7,  ch.  xi. 


MESSIANIC   PROPHECY.  277 

working  on  the  profound  and  passionate  conviction 
of  a  Hebrew  mind  ;  but  their  sense  to  the  imagina- 
tion and  heart  will  always  be  what  the  genius  of  tri- 
umphant melody  has  made  it,* — the  homage  of 
Humanity  to  its  Spiritual  Sovereign,  the  inspired 
longing  and  promise  of  a  Divine  Redeemer. 

The  more  definite  forms  of  Messianic  prophecy, 
the  beautiful  lyrical  amplifications  of  the  earlier  hope 
(found  especially  m  the  closing  chapters  of  Isaiah), 
belong  to  the  subsequent  age.  They  bear  the  spirit- 
ual quality,  and  expand  in  the  purity  of  anticipa- 
tion, triumphant  or  tender,  which  were  wrought  out 
in  a  period  of  larger  culture  and  less  violent  vicissi- 
tude. The  declarations  of  the  elder  prophets  are 
brief,  occasional,  and  vague.  They  abound  not  so 
much  in  clearness  of  statement,  making  them  distinct 
to  the  reason,  as  in  clusters  of  imagery,  making  them 
vivid  to  the  imagination.  Their  garb  is  not  that  of 
definite  prediction,  but  of  vague  anticipation  and 
poetic  rhapsody. 

And,  still  further  to  denote  their  character,  they  oc- 
cur miscellaneously  among  the  appeals  to  conscience 
or  the  declaiming  on  political  events,  without  any 
hint  that  tiiey  are  of  broader  scope  than  that  connec- 
tion would  seem  to  indicate.f  They  come  in  inci- 
dentally, to  round  out  the  circle  of  the  prophet's 
familiar  thought,  rather  than  dwell  minutely  or  fond- 
ly on  the  visions  of  a  remote  future.  In  short,  like 
other  modes  of  prophetic  doctrine  or  appeal,  they 
take   the   precise   form   and  pressure   of  the   time. 

*  In  the  "  Wonderful  Chorus  "  of  Handel's  Messiah. 
t  See  Isaiah,  chaps,  vii.  -  ix. 


278  THE  PROPHETS. 

They  are  held  out  as  encouragement  in  particular 
emergencies,  or  as  assurance  against  particular  dis- 
asters. They  are  a  vindication  of  the  permanency 
of  the  Hebrew  faith,  and  the  faithfulness  of  Jehovah, 
who  will  not  suffer  his  people  to  perish.  They  seize 
some  passing  event,  or  domestic  incident,  or  symbolic 
personal  name,  as  a  "  sign,"  omen,  or  hint  to  the 
imagination,  that  the  national  hope  is  not  doomed 
to  fail.  Its  triumph  is  generally  heralded,  as  if  it 
should  come  with  the  vanishing  of  the  immediate 
danger ;  *  and  it  is  not  till  those  of  clearest  foresight 
despaired  of  the  city's  defence  against  the  king  of 
Babylon  that  its  fulfilment  is  deferred  for  a  period 
of  seventy  years,  —  till  the  land  should  have  expiated 
the  guilt  of  its  five  centuries'  neglect  of  its  seasons 
of  religious  rest.f 

Such  is  the  general  character  of  what  are  known 
as  the  Messianic  prophecies  of  the  Old  Testament,  — 
including  in  that  phrase  not  only  such  as  hint  at  a 
coming  Sovereign  and  everlasting  reign  of  peace,  but 
all  which  foretell  the  nation's  deliverance  and  tri- 
umph amidst  impending  danger.  That  these  predic- 
tions should  gradually  shape  themselves  towards  the 
announcement  of  a  restored  monarchy,  in  renovated 
and  purer  form,  after  the  fondly  imagined  type  of 
David's  reign,  was  inevitable  under  the  conditions 
of  Hebrew  thought.     That  they  should  include  the 

*  See  Isaiah  x.  24  -  27,  in  connection  with  chap.  xi. 

t  2  Chronicles  xxxvi.  21.  The  real  duration  of  the  Captivity  was 
about  fifty  years;  and  the  disappointment  of  the  prophetic  hope  (wliich 
looked  successively  to  Cyrus  and  Zerubbabel)  seems  to  have  suggested 
the  interpretation  of  "  seventy  weeks,"  or  five  centuries.  See  Isaiah 
xlv.  1 J    Uaggai  ii.  23 ;   Daniel  ix.  24. 


MESSIANIC  PROPHECY.  279 

firm  and  universal  dominion  of  the  national  insti- 
tutions,* was  part  of  the  prophet's  loyalty  to  the 
only  form  he  could  imagine  of  the  true  religion, 
and  was  required  by  the  homage  he  paid  his  nation's 
God.  It  is  needless  to  repeat  the  imagery,  some- 
times splendid,  sometimes  tender,  in  which  the  in- 
domitable hope  was  variously  portrayed.  It  is  not 
the  particular  form  of  declaration,  but  the  mental 
quality  so  perpetually  active  and  so  characteristic 
of  the  race,  that  gives  its  chief  value  to  this  portion  of 
the  Hebrew  literature,  together  with  the  answering 
quality  in  the  popular  mind,  which  so  fondly  echoed 
the  words,  and  cherished  the  hope,  and  expanded 
into  large  proportion  each  detail  of  the  imagery,  and 
so,  out  of  what  had  grown  to  be  a  gorgeous  dream, 
created  the  magnificent  type  of  mankind's  concep- 
tion of  its  Redeemer. 

This  one  element,  refined  and  almost  purely  spirit- 
ual, has  survived  to  us,  out  of  the  vast  influence 
wielded  upon  their  own  generation  by  "  the  goodly 
fellowship  of  the  Prophets."  How  mingled  and 
various  was  that  influence,  how  tempered  by  passion, 
delusion,  and  narrowness  of  view  among  some  who 
bore  the  name,  how  affected  by  superstition,  obsti- 
nacy, craft,  hate,  or  fear,  among  those  who,  with  a 
vague  awe,  received  it,  how  misinterpreted  by  the 
fiery  zeal  or  ignorant  prejudice  of  after  times,  has 
been  sufficiently  shown.  A  single  word  suffices  to  re- 
store us  to  the  right  point  of  view,  which  regards  the 
history  as  a  whole,  and  seeks  its  significance  for  the 
later  evolution  of  human  thought.     The  divine  or 

*  Isaiah  ii.  2;  Micah  iv.  1. 


280  THE  PKOPHETS. 

providential  aspect  of  that  history  is  reflected  pre- 
cisely here,  —  in  the  highest  reach  of  thought  and 
purest  moral  aspiration  attained  by  the  foremost 
men  of  the  race.  While  so  much  of  the  nation's 
life  is  utterly  forgotten,  or  grown  unintelligible  and 
obsolete,  —  while  most  of  its  records  have  perished, 
and  its  very  name  is  but  dimly  and  apologetically 
inscribed  in  the  registers  of  the  ancient  world, — 
while  the  race  that  bore  it,  after  centuries  of  igno- 
minious persecution  at  the  hands  of  generations 
that  disowned  their  great  debt,  is  even  now  strug- 
gling for  some  equal  recognition  of  its  religious  and 
civil  right,  —  these  bravest  and  loftiest  words,  spoken 
by  its  true  representative  men,  make  even  now  a 
spell  to  stir  men's  thought,  and  a  living  power  in  the 
permanent  literature  of  the  world.  For,  through 
their  often  meagre  brevity  and  dense  obscurity  and 
wearisome  perplexity,  still  shines  the  light  whicli 
guided  the  desert-march  of  Israel ;  still  sounds  that 
"  voice  crying  in  the  wilderness,"  which  from  distant 
ages  yet  heralds  to  our  heart  the  latest  and  purest 
hope  of  Humanity. 


IX.    THE   CAPTIVITY. 

THE  two  and  a  half  centuries  succeeding  the  fall 
of  Jerusalem  cover  the  entire  brilliant  period 
of  Grecian  history,  from  Solon  to  Alexander.  They 
begin  just  before  those  first  conquests  of  Persian 
power  that  threatened  an  Oriental  despotism  to  domi- 
neer over  the  destinies  of  Europe  :  their  close  finds 
the  little  Jewish  state,  after  twenty  years  of  buffeting 
in  the  game  of  ambition  between  Syria  and  Egypt, 
annexed  as  an  appendage  to  the  empire  of  Ptolemy, 
the  Macedonian  master  of  the  South. 

To  the  fortunes  of  Israel  this  period  was  a  critical 
one,  though  not  eventful.  The  political  unity  of  the 
nation  was  utterly  broken.  There  remained  only  its 
sacred  memories,  its  ritual,  and  its  religious  polity. 
The  royal  theocracy  of  Solomon  and  Hezekiah  be- 
comes a  regency  of  priests.  The  brief  annals  of  the 
time,  almost  blank  of  historical  recital,  present  us 
only  the  broken,  yet  zealous  efforts  to  restore  the 
perished  state,  the  petty  feuds  of  a  covenanting  sect, 
and  the  gradual  strengthening  of  the  priestly  power. 
It  is  the  era  of  Jewish  Puritanism.  It  begins  in  the 
longing  and  sorrow  of  exile  ;  it  continues  with  the 
sad  and  slender  fortunes  of  a  pilgrim  colony.  It 
begins  with  the  blazing  out  of  the  brightest  flame 


282  THE   CAPTIVITY. 

of  Prophecy ;  it  ends  with  its  pale  and  expiring  light. 
The  ancient  ritual  is  adopted  under  new  pledges  as 
the  basis  of  a  narrower  zeal  and  a  more  exclusive  pol- 
ity. The  form  of  old  faith  is  guarded  more  jealously 
than  ever,  while  its  creative  spirit  becomes  extinct : 
and  the  canon  of  Hebrew  Scripture  is  closed  —  like  a 
casket  that  should  keep  untouched  the  treasure  held 
in  trust  for  another  age — just  as  the  Grrecian  mind 
and  arms  become  dominant  in  the  East. 

When  Jerusalem  was  taken,  the  national  life  and 
hope  of  Israel  had  all  but  utterly  perished.  Of  the 
inhabitants  of  Judah,  some  clung  as  they  could  about 
the  wasted  fields  and  dismantled  towns ;  some  lived 
miserably,  by  sufferance  of  the  hostile  garrison,  among 
the  highlands  near  Jerusalem ;  some  were  scattered 
through  Arabia,  or  among  the  colonies  and  islands  of 
the  west,  as  far  probably  as  Carthage  or  even  Spain  ; 
and  some,  more  fortunate,  found  friendly  shelter  in 
Egypt,  where  germs  of  a  more  ideal  faith,  and  trust 
in  a  destiny  yet  in  store  for  Israel,  began  presently  to 
grow  afresh.  The  bulk  of  the  population  —  of  whom 
Jeremiah  reckons  up  only  forty-six  hundred ;  *  in  all, 
perhaps,  about  as  many  thousand  —  were  taken  to  fill 
the  void  spaces  of  a  capital  so  vast,  that,  when  half 
of  it  was  afterwards  in  the  hands  of  an  enemy,  the 
rumour  of  attack  was  in  some  districts  still  unheard. 

It  was  the  humane  policy  of  the  great  Eastern 
monarchies,!  not  to  treat  their  captive?  as  slaves  or 
sell  them  into  foreign  bondage,  but  to  make  them 
useful   colonists,  —  if   possible,   contented    subjects. 

*  Chap.  lii.  28  -  30. 

t  See  Grote's  History  of  Greece,  Chap.  XLIL 


GRIEFS   OF  EXILE.  283 

The  Jews  along  the  Euphrates  were  thus  left  with 
no  small  amount  of  personal  liberty.  They  had  their 
own  local  rulers,  their  religious  chiefs,  and  the  free 
practice  of  their  forms  of  faith.  They  embarked  in 
various  forms  of  enterprise  and  trade.  They  had 
property  in  houses,  lands,  and  slaves.*  Numbers 
of  them  at  a  later  day  attained  considerable  local 
importance ;  some  even,  as  Daniel  and  Mordecai, 
came  to  the  highest  dignities  at  court.  The  inevit- 
able hardship  of  exile  was  made  keener,  doubtless, 
at  first,  by  the  insolent  and  dissolute  idolatry  of  the 
great  capital  of  heathendom,  and  by  something  like 
religious  persecution  when  the  heart  was  too  full  of 
a  loyal  grief  to  furnish  mirth  for  a  pagan  revel. 
"  I  have  given  Jacob  to  the  curse  and  Israel  to  re- 
proaches," Jehovah  is  made  to  say  ;  "  they  that  rule 
over  them  make  them  to  howl,  and  my  name  is  con- 
tinually blasphemed."  "  The  visage  of  my  people  is 
blacker  than  a  coal ;  they  are  not  known  in  the 
streets  ;  the  slain  with  the  sword  are  better  than 
those  that  perish  with  hunger,  for  these  pine  away, 
stricken  through  for  want  of  the  fruits  of  the  land." 
And  hanging  their  harps  upon  the  willows,  by  the 
rivers  of  Babylon,  the  captives  "  wept  when  they  re- 
membered Zion."  t  But  even  in  this  regard  thete 
came  to  be  freedom,  at  least  indulgence.  Ezekiel 
could  tell  his  visions  unmolested  among  "  the  cap- 
tives by  the  river  of  Chebar ; "  messages  of  counsel 
or  rebuke  were  sent  from  Egypt  or  Palestine,  by  the 
aged  Jeremiah,  to  his  fellow-exiles  across  the  Syrian 

*  See  the  accounts  respecting  Mordecai,  Tobit,  etc. 

t  See  Isaiah  xliii.  28,  lii.  5 ;  Lamentations  iv.  8,  9 ;  Psalm  cxxxvii. 


284  THE  CAPTIVITY. 

desert ;  and  the  "  great  unnamed ''  Prophet  of  the 
Captivity  could  cheer  them  at  a  distance  with  his 
glowing  promises  of  a  divine  Champion,  and  a  com- 
ing spiritual  reign  of  Israel.  Thus  the  national 
hope  had  not  perished.  The  destiny  of  the  race  was 
not  wholly  accomplished.  The  divine  instinct  which 
looks  to  the  future  was  not  lost.  The  "remnant" 
which  elder  prophecy  *  said  should  return,  and  build 
up  again  from  the  desolation  it  foresaw,  was  ready 
to  answer,  unembarrassed,  the  first  summons  to  the 
holy  land. 

In  the  mean  time,  relations  peaceable  and  friendly 
grew  up  between  the  exiles  and  the  conquerors. 
Chaldaean  forms  of  speech  invaded  the  purity  of  the 
old  Hebrew  tongue,  and  Chaldaean  names  were 
adopted  in  Hebrew  homes.  Local  attachments  were 
formed  as  older  memories  faded  out.  The  half-cen- 
tury of  forced  banishment  brought  many  t^  adopt  a 
foreign  land  from  choice.  The  purest  Hebrew  blood 
was  naturahzed  in  Babylon.  The  pining  exiles  be- 
came first  contented  subjects,  then  prosperous  and 
wiUing  colonists.  Their  characteristic  thrift  did  not 
desert  them  ;  and  no  pious  scruple  deterred  them 
from  a  profitable  tenure  on  the  plain  of  Shinar. 
*^This  captivity  is  long,"  Jeremiah  had  forewarned 
them,  "  build  ye  houses  and  dwell  in  them ;  plant 
gardens  and  eat  the  fruit  of  them."  With  the  ma- 
jority the  new  tie  was  stronger  than  the  old.  The 
Babylonian  Jews  continued  a  flourishing  community 
long  after  the  later  state  of  Judah  was  crushed  by  the 
merciless  revenge  of  Rome.     Their  long  existence  as 

*  Isaiah  x.  20,  etc. 


BABYLON  THE  GREAT.  285 

a  distinct  body,  their  independent  schools  of  learning, 
their  wealth  and  consequence,  as  shown  in  the  style  of 
their  tradition,  and  the  repute  had  of  them  in  Oriental 
story,  all  attest  the  tenacious  hold  which  the  trans- 
planted stock  had  laid  upon  the  soil.* 

It  was  with  jealous  alarm  that  the  more  pious  and 
patriotic  saw  the  course  of  this  denationalizing.  The 
most  vehement  expostulations  of  Jeremiah  are  direct- 
ed against  the  threatening  apostasy.  "  My  people,  go 
ye  out  of  the  midst  of  her,"  he  exclaims,  after  de- 
nouncing woe  and  ruin  against  the  city,  "  and  deliver 
ye  every  man  his  soul  from  the  fierce  anger  of  Jeho- 
vah. Go  away  ;  stand  not  still ;  remember  Jehovah 
afar  off,  and  let  Jerusalem  come  into  your  mind ! " 
The  pride  and  splendour  of  Babylon  became  a  symbol 
of  everything  that  is  hostile  and  hateful  to  Jehovah, 
—  an  evil  eminence  which  "that  great  city"  holds 
in  the  visions  of  the  Apocalypse,  and  in  the  polemic 
metaphors  of  this  very  day. 

The  greater  jealousy  and  dread  were  felt,  because 
here  was  the  centre  of  Oriental  civilization,  with  its 
intellectual  pride,  its  insolent  and  cruel  despotism,  its 
gorgeous  idol-worship,  its  effeminate  and  mfamous 
luxury.  The  conquest  of  Jerusalem  had  taken  place 
in  the  middle  of  the  long  reign  of  Nebuchadnezzar, 
the  most  famous  and  splendid  of  the  Chaldaean  mon- 
archs.  His  ambition  was  to  adorn  and  fortify,  by  the 
most  lavish  outlay,  his  enormous  capital :  in  curious 
testimony   of  it,   every  brick   of  its   ruin  bears  the 

*  For  the  titles  and  dignity  of  the  Son  of  David,  "  Prince  of  the 
Captivity"  in  Bagdad,  in  the  twelfth  century,  see  the  Travels  of  R. 
Benjamin  of  Tudela.     (Bohn's  "  Early  Travels  in  Palestine/') 


286  THE   CAPTIVITY. 

stamp  of  his  name.*  One  wonted  to  the  compact 
and  picturesque  scenery  of  Judah,  with  its  irregular, 
close-built  towns,  and  the  pastoral  landscape,  home 
of  pious  and  venerable  story,  would  be  not  so  much 
astonished  as  lost  and  appalled  among  the  vast  splen- 
dours of  "  Babylon  the  great,"  —  a  city  connected  by 
tradition  with  the  lewd  violence  of  primeval  giants, 
and  Nimrod's  bold  impiety,  and  the  rebellious  blas- 
phemy of  Babel. 

A  district  fifteen  miles  square,  rich  with  gardens, 
orchards,  palaces,  and  the  low,  scattered  dwellings  of 
an  Asiatic  population,  was  enclosed  in  a  prodigious 
wall  of  sixty  miles  in  circuit  and  three  hundred  feet 
high.  Such  was  the  scale  of  grandeur  of  this  proud 
Oriental  capital.  The  great  "  gates  of  brass  and  bars 
of  iron  "  that  defied  an  enemy's  approach  ;  the  gor- 
geous temple  of  the  Sun,  a  furlong  high  ;  the  terraced 
or  "hanging"  gardens  of  more  than  three  acres, — 
orchard  and  forest  being  lifted  on  stupendous  arches 
to  the  height  of  the  city-wall  itself,  to  please  the 
homesick  fancy  of  a  highland  queen ;  the  system  of 
drainage,  such  that  it  was  said  the  whole  water  of 
the  Euphrates  could  be  drawn  off  into  an  artificial 
lake,  and  fatally  exposing  the  city  to  the  night-strata- 
gem of  Cyrus ;  the  fortifications  of  corresponding 
magnitude  that  defended  a  region  far  greater  than 
all  Palestine, — works  of  fabulous  and  terrifying  vast- 
ness  to  an  unaccustomed  eye,  as  if  wrought  by  de- 
mons and  not  by  men,  —  all  were  part  of  that  inso- 
lent pomp  of  idolatry  which  had  challenged  and  de- 
stroyed the  poor  district-worship  of  Jehovah.     Partly 

*  Sec  Layard. 


CYRUS.  —  THE  PERSIAN  FAITH.  287 

with  terror  and  hate,  partly  with  an  heroic  trust  in 
the  Arm  they  behoved  to  be  almighty,  the  faithful 
now  answered  back  the  challenge  of  their  conqueror ; 
and  the  bolder  prophetic  spirit  triumphed  already  in 
the  sure  prospect  of  his  overthrow. 

This  passionate  and  vindictive  hope  grew  more 
vivid  as  the  time  of  deliverance  drew  near.  "  These 
nations  shall  serve  the  king  of  Babylon  seventy 
years,"  said  Jeremiah,*  —  and  when  these  were  ac- 
complished, that  is,  before  the  close  of  the  second 
generation,  —  the  captivity  should  be  at  an  end. 
Fifty  years  had  not  yet  passed,  when  the  great  Con- 
queror Cyrus,  with  his  freshly  organized  military 
monarchy  of  leagued  Modes  and  Persians,  advanced 
from  the  north  upon  the  plain  of  the  Euphrates.  In 
him  the  Jews  were  eager  to  find  their  promised 
deliverer.  Already,  in  the  prophecies  of  the  later 
Isaiah,!  Jehovah  addresses  him  as  "his  shepherd," 
and  "  his  Messiah,  —  whose  hand  he  has  upheld  to 
subdue  the  nations." 

Besides,  the  Persians  brought  from  their  clear,  cool 
mountain-region  a  simplicity  of  manners,  and  a  purer 
type  of  worship,  that  might  easily  make  them  seem 
the  natural  allies  of  Israel  in  the  great  conflict  with 
idolatry.  An  austere  and  imaginative  temperament 
had  —  at  least  among  the  better  interpreters  of  their 
doctrine  —  turned  the  gross  nature-religion  common 
to  the  East  from  the  worship  of  the  Sun  or  fire,  to 
adoration  of  the  pure  elemental  Light,  which  the  re- 
cent reform  of  Zoroaster  J  had  closely  assimilated  to 

*  Ch.  XXV.  11,12.  t  Ch.  xlv.  1. 

J  According  to  the  most  probable  chronology. 


288  THE  CAPTIVITY. 

the  simple  monotheism  of  the  Hebrews.  The  Dual- 
ism of  the  Parsic  creed,  the  struggle  it  announced 
between  the  eternal  powers  of  Good  and  Evil,  would 
not  be  unwelcome  to  them  now,  as  figuring  the  type 
of  contest  to  which  their  religion  had  committed  them. 
Ormuzd  and  Ahriman  were  but  the  more  vague  Ori- 
ental symbol  of  the  God  and  Adversary  of  their 
people.  At  any  rate,  this,  with  other  doctrines  of 
Persian  origin,  is  found  strongly  colouring  the  style 
of  later  Hebrew  thought ;  and,  however  undefined, 
may  have  had  its  effect  now  in  making  the  new  in- 
vaders seem  to  be  expressly  commissioned  by  Jeho- 
vah. 

The  war  of  religion,  therefore,  which  the  Persians 
waged,  more  or  less  concealed  under  the  war  of  pol- 
icy or  conquest,*  was  one  which  would  call  out  the 
strong  partisanship  of  the  Jews.  In  the  confident 
tone  of  prediction,  and  in  the  suddenness  of  the 
reward,  one  might  even  infer  a  serviceable  secret 
league  between  the  conqueror  and  the  expectant 
exiles  within  the  gates.  The  Scripture  narrative  f 
summons  the  great  Daniel  to  the  royal  banquet,  to 
announce  the  doom  which  that  very  night  would  be- 
fall the  sacrilegious  and  dissolute  king.  And  within 
a  year   after  his  victory,   Cyrus  issues  the   decree 

*  See  extracts  from  the  "Behistun  Inscription,"  in  Rawlinson's  He- 
rodotus, Vol.  II.  ' 

t  Daniel,  chap.  v.  The  manner  in  which  Daniel  is  mentioned  by 
Ezekiel  (xiv.  14),  who  wrote  from  thirty-five  to  fifty-eight  years  before 
this  event,  has  suggested  the  opinion  that  he  was  one  of  the  earlier 
captives  of  Nineveh  ;  the  "Book  of  Daniel"  (written  three  centuries 
later)  naturally  placing  him  in  the  more  famous  epoch.  Ewald,  "  Die 
Propheten,"  Vol.  II. 


THE  JEWISH   COLONY.  28^ 

acknowledging  the  sovereignty  of  the  One  God  who 
gave  him  victory,  redeeming  the  captivity  of  the 
Jews,  and  authorizing  their  return  to  Palestine.* 

Henceforth  the  fortunes  of  the  Hebrew  race  are 
narrowed  down  to  those  of  the  single  colony  of  Judah, 
with  its  outlying  branches  in  Babylon  and  Egypt; 
and  the  title  "  Jews  "  becomes  appropriate,  instead  of 
that  which  more  broadly  designates  the  nation  or  the 
race.  Here,  too,  we  begin  to  trace  the  marked  ef- 
fects on  the  national  life  and  thought  both  of  their 
experience  of  exile  and  of  the  wider  intercourse 
henceforth  open  to  them  with  the  mind  of  other  na- 
tions. The  predominating  influence  was  by  turns 
Persian,  Greek,  and  Roman.  And  the  matter  of 
chief  interest  in  the  later  history  is  to  follow  the 
course  of  the  successive  influences,  whereby  the  orig- 
inal type  of  Hebrew  faith  is  so  moulded  and  trans- 
formed, and  so  blended  with  other  elements  of  the 
world's  culture,  that  its  germ  of  truth  should  fina,lly 
ripen  in  a  faith  limitless  and  universal,  and  become 
the  religion  of  the  civilized  world. 

The  Captivity  of  Babylon  had  lasted  a  little  more 
than  fifty  years.f  We  cannot  tell  the  story  of  it  in 
its  events,  for  of  these  there  are  none,  but  only  in  its 
effects.  One  effect  has  been  seen  already,  in  weaning 
away  the  affections  and  interests  of  many  from  the 

*  B.  C.  536.     See  the  decree  in  its  Jewish  dress,  Ezra  i.  2  -4. 

t  To  complete  the  prophetic  seventy,  some  suppose  an  earlier  trans- 
portation in  the  time  of  Jehoiakim,  together  with  the  hostages  men- 
tioned in  Daniel,  ch.  i. ;  some,  that  Jeremiah  dates  from  the  time  of  his 
own  announcement  at  the  first  rise  of  the  Chaldaean  power  ;  and  some, 
that  the  period  closes  with  the  dedication  of  the  second  temple.  But 
most  narrators  proceed  without  noticing  the  flaw  in  the  chronology. 


290  THE   CAPTIVITY. 

land  of  their  fathers,  and  naturalizing  them  in  the 
East.  It  did  not  alienate  their  affections  or  pervert 
their  faith  as  to  their  inherited  religion.  On  the  con- 
trary, they  seem  to  have  kept  a  loyal  regard  towards 
Jerusalem,  and  to  have  prided  themselves  on  the  as- 
siduous zeal  of  their  piety,  and  the  superior  purity 
of  their  blood.*  But  they  had  no  share  in  the  adven- 
turous faith  and  pious  enterprise  of  the  Jewish  Puri- 
tans. Their  home  was  in  another  land.  It  was  not 
for  them  to  undergo  again  the  privations  and  pains 
of  exile.  Their  good-will  and  charity  might  attend 
the  pilgrims  ;  and  from  their  condition  of  comfort  or 
command  near  the  Persian  throne,  they  might  be  of 
generous  and  timely  service,  as  mediating  between 
their  countrymen  and  their  monarch.  But  the  half- 
century  had  made  a  gulf  that  broadly  sundered  them 
from  the  fortunes  and  sympathies  of  the  West.  Its 
first  effect  was  seen,  accordingly,  in  drawing  this  new 
line  of  separation,  and  making  of  Judah  a  divided 
people. 

Nor  were  its  effects  less  marked  on  those  who 
accepted  the  royal  offer,  and  who  represent  hence- 
forth the  state  and  destinies  of  Israel.  As  it  intro- 
duced a  new  line  of  demarcation,  so  it  blotted  out 
the  old  ones.  Hereafter,  we  know  no  distinctions 
of  the  tribe.  The  register  of  the  returning  Jews 
classes  them  only  by  families.  The  fiction  of  the 
twelve   original   tribes  was  still  kept  up  in  sundry 

*  Signified  in  the  statement  cited  from  the  Talmud,  that  Ezra  took 
with  him  to  Jerusalem  all  those  of  doubtful  parentage,  "  so  that  the 
Jews  left  in  Babylon  should  be  pure  like  flour."  "  Whosoever  dwells 
m  Babylon,"  it  is  added,  "  is  as  though  he  dwelt  in  the  land  of  Israel, 
and  is  reputed  as  clean."     (Lightfoot.) 


THE   TEN  LOST  TRIBES.  291 

vague  traditions  and  in  many  a  religious  allusion  ; 
but  the  reality  of  it  was  irrecoverably  lost.  The 
fortunes  of  the  ten  northern  tribes  have  never  been 
followed  with  the  least  approach  to  certainty.  Jew- 
ish legend  transplants  them  far  eastward,  towards 
central  Asia ;  where  their  identity  is  miraculously 
guarded,  and  where  a  vast  and  splendid  kingdom, 
never  visited  by  the  traveller  or  to  be  seen  by  Gentile 
eye,  preserves  the  chosen  race  ("  an  immense  multi- 
tude not  to  be  reckoned  by  numbers ")  for  their 
august  coming  destiny.*  Modern  fancy  has  traced 
their  likeness  in  the  character  or  customs  of  many 
a  race,  —  the  Affghans,  the  Persian  Nestorians,  and 
the  Algonquins  of  North  America.  Looking  merely 
to  the  likelihood  of  fact,  one  remnant  of  them  may 
have  mmgled  in  Palestine  among  the  mixed  breeds 
that  made  up  the  Samaritan  population  ;  and  an- 
other, if  it  escaped  fusion  with  other  races  during  its 
long  exile,  may  have  joined  the  returning  Jews,  and 
so  the  blood  of  every  tribe  should  flow  in  the  veins 
of  each.  Except  in  family  genealogies,  or  in  the 
sacred  line  of  priests,  nothing  is  known,  since  the 
first  capture  of  Jerusalem,  of  those  tribal  divisions, 
or  characteristic  traits,  so  marked  throughout  the 
earlier  history.  Even  the  long  feud  of  Ephraim  and 
Judah  survived  only  in  the  religious  antipathy  be- 
tween Samaritans  and  Jews. 

The  ancient  aristocracy  represented  in  the  honours 
of  the  Tribe  being  lost,  there  remained  only  the 
"  caste   aristocracy "  of  the   religious   orders.     The 

*  2  Esdras  xiii.  40  -  46.  See  also  Eisenraenger,  "  Entdecktes  Ju- 
denthum,"  concerning  the  fabulous  empire  of  "Presther  John." 


292  THE   CAPTIVITY. 

Priesthood  now  appears,  far  more  prominently  than 
ever  before,  as  a  privileged  and  powerful  class.  It 
includes,  or  by  degrees  absorbs,  all  the  power  and 
dignity  of  the  state.  This  was  the  consequence,  in 
part,  of  circumstances  none  could  control :  in  part, 
of  the  separation  that  took  place  in  Babylon.  Doubt- 
less it  was  a  heavy  disappointment,  both  to  the 
prophets  and  to  the  religious  leaders  generally,  that 
so  small  a  share  of  the  people  followed  their  lead  to 
Palestine.*  Including  many  families  of  doubtful 
descent,  together  with  household  servants,  hirelings 
or  slaves,  the  whole  migration  was  less  than  fifty 
thousand.  As  a  general  thing,  the  more  important 
and  able  of  the  population  remained  behind, — that 
part,  too,  which  claimed  purer  degrees  of  blood. 
Besides  sincere  enthusiasts,  the  most  valuable  por- 
tion of  such  a  colony,  the  migration  must  have 
gathered  in  its  ranks  the  poor,  the  ignorant,  the 
adventurous,  —  an  untrained  and  motley  mass.  Their 
single  common  object  was  a  religious  one  ;  their  one 
bond  of  union,  loyalty  to  their  rehgious  chiefs. 
Thus  every  circumstance  favoured  the  exclusive 
ascendency  of  the  priests.  As  every  way  the  ablest 
and  most  intelligent,  they  were  also  the  fit  and 
rightful  leaders.  Besides,  it  was  a  matter  of  impor- 
tance not  to  excite  the  jealousy  of  the  royal  power 
at  Babylon.  An  ambitious  secular  chief  or  a  turn 
of  political  agitation  might  have  blasted  the  enter- 
prise at  a  breath.  No  thought  of  possible  indepen- 
dence must  be  suggested;  no  fear  that  the  new 
settlement  might  ever  be  turned  into  a  hostile  gar- 

*  Sec  Jeremiah  1.  4,  19;  Ezekiel  xxxvii.  11,  12. 


EITUAL  AND   SACRED   BOOKS.  293 

rison.  The  quarrel  with  the  Samaritans  once  nearly- 
defeated  the  entire  object  by  rousing  such  a  sus- 
picion. To  avoid  it,  a  religious  enterprise  must  be 
the  only  front  it  should  present ;  the  only  power  to 
rule  it  should  be  a  spiritual  power.  The  regency 
of  Priests  was  both  the  natural  and  the  effectual 
resort,  to  check  any  budding  jealousy  and  secure 
the  germ  of  the  infant  colony  from  perishing. 

This  immediate  and  decided  ascendency  of  the 
priestly  class  aided  to  form  several  strongly  marked 
features  of  the  later  Jewish  character.  The  Ritual 
became  a  thing  of  exaggerated  and  exclusive  conse- 
quence. So  far  as  the  local  government  was  con- 
cerned, it  was  in  fact  almost  the  entire  law.  The 
Sacred  Books  were  regarded  with  new  and  super- 
stitious veneration.  This  is  the  era  of  proselytism, 
of  elaborate  compilation,  of  assiduous  comment,  of 
canon-making.  An  anxious  and  minute  erudition, 
or  implicit  deference  to  the  closed  canon  of  any  book, 
always  marks  the  decay  of  intellectual  life.  The  age 
of  Prophecy  expired  when  the  age  of  Creeds  began. 
In  place  of  the  free,  glad  loyalty  with  which  the  Divine 
Sovereign  of  Israel  is  named  in  tales  and  ballads  or 
religious  songs  of  the  elder  time,  we  find  presently 
the  scrupulous  superstition  which  held  it  profane 
to  utter  aloud  the  name  Jehovah,  and  disguised  it 
even  in  writing.*  In  place  of  the  national  faith,  the 
spontaneous  creative  spirit  that  dictated   psalm   or 

*  In  Hebrew,  by  vowel-points  corresponding  not  with  the  true  name 
itself,  but  with  another  word  signifying  "  Lord ; "  which  was  substi- 
tuted for  it  in  reading,  and  is  its  usual  representative  in  Greek  and 
English.  The  probable  pi-onunciation,  YaJiveh,  was  preserved  by  the 
Samaritans.     (Theodoret,  quoted  in  Sophocles's  Glossary,  s.  v.  'lajSe.) 


294  THE   CAPTIVITY. 

prophecy,  we  find  the  careful  dividing  of  sections 
and  numbering  of  words  and  letters  in  Holy  Writ. 
The  outline  of  the  grand  old  theocracy  Is  painfully 
preserved  ;  its  meaning  trimmed  to  the  proportions 
of  a  feebler  time  and  people,  —  instead  of  a  free 
desert  horde,  or  ambitious  independent  monarchy, 
a  poor  scant  colony  under  the  rule  of  priests.  It 
was,  indeed,  a  shadow  of  the  old  Hebrew  institutions 
that  remained,  —  a  type  of  the  new  condition  of 
things,  showing  what  part  had  been  fulfilled,  and 
what  was  yet  wanting  to  the  nation's  destiny. 

Some  features  of  law  or  ritual  were  extended,  and 
urged  with  scrupulous  strictness,  as  those  relating  to 
holy  time,  —  the  fanatical  observance  of  the  Sabbath, 
and  the  realizing  or  revival  of  the  sabbatical  year. 
And  while  the  Levitical  law  was  thus  strictly  kept, 
the  encroachments  of  Grecian  culture  on  one  hand, 
and  on  the  other  the  great  growth  of  Oriental  tradi- 
tion or  laborious  comment,  give  us  presently  germs 
of  the  contending  sects  of  later  Jewish  times.  In 
the  style  of  additions  now  made  to  the  sacred  books 
(such  as  the  "  Chronicles  "  and  the  later  Prophets) 
we  see  the  marked  change  in  the  type  of  Hebrew 
mind  that  resulted  from  the  exclusive  ascendency 
of  the  holy  order.  The  priestly  rule,  in  many  es- 
sential regards,  met  both  the  fact  and  the  want  of 
the  time.  But  by  an  inevitable  fatality  it  prepared 
the  way,  through  the  steps  just  hinted  at,  for  that 
bigoted  formalism,  that  truculent  and  unlovely  fanat- 
icism, so  marked  in  the  later  Jewish  character. 

In  the  social  condition  and  temper  of  the  people 
we    trace  yet  another   influence    of   the   Captivity. 


EFFECT   ON  HABITS  AND   IDEAS.  295 

Twice  within  two  generations  their  hold  upon  the 
soil  of  their  birth  had  been  wrenched  away ;  and, 
in  the  interval  between,  they  were  exiles  in  a  land 
strange  to  their  ancient  ways.  So  the  great  change 
was  wrought,  which,  from  patient  husbandmen  on  a 
scanty  soil,  made  them  traders,  ready  at  any  hazard 
for  adventure,  trade,  and  gain.  The  Jewish  stock, 
too,  was  now  very  widely  spread.  It  had  three  main 
branches,  —  the  colonies  in  Babylon,  Palestine,  and 
Egypt,  —  and  among  these  some  way  of  constant  com- 
munication would  be  found.  And  so  there  came 
about  that  singular  blending  of  traits,  which  made 
the  most  bigoted  provincial  in  the  realm  of  faith  at 
the  same  time  the  most  thorough  cosmopolite  in  the 
world  of  trade.  The  chance  and  broken  settlements 
in  Judaea,  and  the  unsettled  condition  of  that  age  of 
conquest,  must  have  further  helped  to  form  this  fea- 
ture of  Jewish  character,  so  exaggerated  in  later 
times  by  a  thousand  years  of  persecution,  dispersion, 
and  reproach. 

Still  another  result  of  the  Captivity  remains  to  be 
more  distinctly  noted,  —  its  effect  on  religious  doc- 
trines and  ideas.  Close  contact  with  the  Chaldee 
and  Persian  theocracies  had  very  considerably  en- 
larged the  circle  of  Hebrew  speculation.  The  Zoro- 
astrian  doctrine  of  immortality,  in  the  form  of 
bodily  resurrection  from  the  realms  of  death,  begins 
to  be  current  in  the  dominant  Jewish  sect,  and  be- 
comes, a  little  later,  a  received  article  in  the  popular 
creed,  the  root  of  many  an  extravagant  fable  that 
decked  the  dream  of  an  earthly  paradise.*     To  this 

*  See  Eisenmenger. 


296  THE   CAPTIVITY. 

was  added  a  gorgeous  and  fanciful  mythology  of  the 
invisible  world.  The  general  notion  and  hierarchy 
of  the  Angels  is  derived  mainly  from  the  Persian, 
names  of  Hebrew  origin  being  assigned  to  the  seven 
"  Amschaspands  "  that  surround  the  Throne  of 
Light ;  *  while  the  particular  forms  of  fancy,  vividly 
drawn  in  the  visions  of  Ezekiel  and  Zechariah,  repro- 
duce the  well-known  symbols  found  in  the  buried 
palaces  of  Nineveh. 

We  find  henceforth  no  trace  of  the  old  proneness  to 
idolatry,  the  sensual  Syrian  fancy  being  utterly  taken 
captive  by  the  dreamy  vastness  of  Oriental  fable.  Je- 
hovah is  no  longer  the  local  deity  of  Palestine,  or  the 
"jealous  God  "  of  a  petty  clan ;  but  is  more  and  more 
invested  with  the  attributes  of  a  spiritual  and  universal 
God.f  His  enemies  or  rivals  are  no  longer  the  divin- 
ities of  surrounding  tribes,  but  the  types  of  natural 
or  moral  evil  symbolized  in  the  Zoroastrian  creed. 
The  doctrine  of  the  celestial  hierarchy,  and  rebellious 
angels,  with  their  influence  on  human  destiny,  pre- 
pares the  way  for  the  later  fables  of  the  Talmud,  and 
the  "endless  genealogies"  of  Gnosticism.  A  pro- 
founder,  at  least  a  more  grave  and  earnest,  philoso- 
phy of  Good  and  Evil  sprang  from  commerce  with 

*  R.  Simeon  ben  Lachish  says  :  "  The  names  of  the  angels  came  up 
in  the  hand  of  Israel  out  of  Babylon.  For  before  it  was  said,  Thenfiew 
one  of  the  Seraphim  unto  me;  Before  him  stood  the  Seraphim.  (Isaiah  vi.) 
But  afterwards,  The  man  Gabriel;  Michael  your  prince.  (Daniel  ix.  21 ; 
X.  21.)"     Lightfoot  on  Luke  i.  26. 

t  In  the  book  of  Nehemiah  the  word  "  God  "  is  almost  invariably 
used  instead  of  the  proper  name  "  Jehovah,"  —  a  symptom  of  foreign 
influence  found  also  in  many  of  the  later  Psalms,  among  which  may 
be  reckoned  the  103d  and  139th. 


LATER  JEWISH  SPECULATIONS.  297 

this  Oriental  style  of  thought.  Satan  now  appears,* 
after  the  likeness  of  the  Persian  Ahriman,  as  the  foe 
of  good,  and  the  especial  Adversary  of  Jehovah's  peo- 
ple. And  the  conception  of  a  fearful  retribution  of 
guilt  after  death,  even  if  earlier  rudiments  of  it  may 
be  traced,  at  least  begins  now  to  have  a  distinct  effect 
to  shape  the  doctrines  of  the  Jewish  creed. 

We  find,  too,  a  breadth  and  pliancy  of  speculation, 
a  cosmopolitan  temper  in  thinking,  a  yielding  to 
foreign  invasion  in  the  realm  of  abstract  ideas,  char- 
acteristic of  the  later  Jewish  mind,  curiously  con- 
trasted with  its  former  bare  simplicity,  and  curiously 
blended  with  its  precise  and  rigid  formalism  in  mat- 
ters of  faith.  The  very  narrowness  of  their  previous 
culture,  and  their  superstitious  deference  to  the  letter 
of  the  Law,  seem  rather  paradoxically  to  have  made 
the  Jews  all  the  more  open  to  these  importations  of 
opinion.  Every  analogy  they  found  or  fancied  be- 
tween their  Scripture  and  the  sacred  traditions  of 
Chaldee  or  Persian,  —  as  afterwards  with  the  philos- 
ophy of  the  Greeks,  —  they  would  lay  hold  on  as  a 
divine  sanction  to  the  doctrine  that  claimed  a  specu- 
lative assent.  And  a  later  age  is  astonished  to  find 
not  only  the  speculations  of  Plato  traced  to  a  Hebrew 
source,  but  Moses  himself  made  the  prince  of  philos- 
ophers, and  a  subtile  creed  of  metaphysics  prefigured 
in  the  naive  legends  of  the  book  of  Genesis.f  This 
trait  of  mind  was  first  brought  into  activity  and  relief 
during  the  time  of  the  Babylonish  Captivity. 

The  colony  that  accepted  the  grant  of  a  settlement 

*  1  Chronicles  xxi.  1. 
t  See  below,  "  The  Alexandrians." 
13* 


298  THE   CAPTIVITY. 

among  the  ruined  Tillages  and  forts  of  Judah  put 
itself  under  the  lead  of  Zerubbabel  the  governor  *  and 
Joshua  the  priest.  Zerubbabel  had  been  a  favourite 
at  the  Persian  court  for  his  accomplishments  and 
wit-t  He  now  showed  himself  a  stanch  Israelite  in 
affectionate  and  patient  loyalty,  —  a  man  of  resolute 
and  enterprising  temper,  such  as  the  forlorn  pilgrim- 
age demanded.  He  was  the  deputy  and  represent- 
ative of  the  royal  authority  in  the  new  and  dependent 
state.  Joshua,  the  high-priest,  brought  in  his  hands 
the  symbols  of  the  spiritual  power,  and  by  his  pres- 
ence gave  it  the  sanction  of  ancient  institutions  and  a 
national  worship.  The  whole  colony  amounted  to 
near  fifty  thousand. J  A  single  and  sacred  aim  swal- 
lowed up  whatever  there  might  be  of  difference  in 
opinion  or  incongruity  of  material.  The  enterprise 
was  a  religious  one.  Those  who  shared  it  were  of 
the  straitest  sect  of  Jews,  Covenanters  in  their  creed, 
and  exiles  for  their  faith.  The  temper  of  the  rising 
province  was  that  of  a  narrow,  intense,  and  bigoted 
nationality,  tenacious  of  ancient  custom,  and  rigidly 
exclusive  of  alien  blood,  chafing  no  doubt  at  the  pro- 
tectorate the  time  compelled,  and  impatiently  looking 
for  the  triumphant  sovereignty  which  ancient  seers 
foretold. 

Nor   were    circumstances  wanting  to   exasperate, 
and  bind  all  the  closer  the  new  sectarian  national- 


*  Called  also  Sheshbazzar.  His  title  under  the  Persian  commission 
was  "  Tirshatha,"  or  governor.     (Ezra  i.  8,  ii.  63 ;  Nehemiah  viii.  9.) 

t  See  the  narrative  in  Esdras,  chaps,  iii.,  iv. 

t  Ezra  ii.  64,  65.  In  exact  numbers,  49,697,  of  whom  7,337  were 
servants,  including  "  two  hundred  singing  men  and  singing  women." 


ZERUBBABEL.  —  THE  TEMBLE  REBUILT.     299 

ity.  The  Holy  Land  —  since  half  a  century  trampled 
and  defiled  by  hostile  feet  —  offered  her  slender  hos- 
pitality to  the  new  migration.  The  mixed  race  of 
Samaritans  had  long  held  the  better  parts  of  it ;  and 
during  the  long  disorder  the  tribe  of  Edom,  still  hos- 
tile and  resentful,  had  spread  towards  the  north,  seiz- 
ing many  a  possession  in  Judah  or  along  the  banks  of 
Jordan.  A  miserable  remnant  of  the  former  inhab- 
itants clung  round  the  ruin  of  the  sacred  city,  where 
the  garrison  that  was  left  behind  to  keep  down  any 
tumult  or  rebellion  continued  long  after  to  mark  the 
presence  and  domination  of  a  foreign  power  on  the 
very  heights  of  Moriah. 

The  new  temple,  the  first  great  undertaking  of  the 
colony,  was  a  work  of  cost  and  hazard,  beset  by  the 
straits  of  poverty,  and  the  jealous  ill-will  of  those  who 
resented  this  new  occupation  of  their  territory.  It 
may  have  been  a  wise  precaution  of  Zerubbabel 
against  an  encroachment  that  would  have  demoral- 
ized the  only  motive  he  could  trust  to  build  on,  when 
he  rejected  the  suspicious  aid  of  the  Samaritans,  but 
it  had  nearly  nipped  the  enterprise  in  its  germ. 
The  foundations  of  the  temple  had  been  already  laid, 
amidst  religious  festivities,  the  tears  of  a  burdened 
and  grateful  memory,  and  the  shouts  of  patriotic  joy, 
when  a  deputation  came  from  Samaria  claiming  kin- 
ship in  faith,  and  proposing  alliance  in  the  religious 
work.  This  was  promptly  and  disdainfully  refused  ; 
and  "  then  the  people  of  the  land  weakened  the 
hands  of  the  people  of  Judah,  and  troubled  them 
in  building."  They  found  it  no  hard  matter  to  de- 
fame the  new  colony  with  the  wayward  and  suspi- 


300  THE   CAPTIVITY. 

cioiis  despotism  of  Cambyses,  and  a  royal  order 
forbade  the  rebuilding  of  the  "  bad  and  rebellious 
city."  Then  came  the  confusion  of  Cambyses'  Egyp- 
tian conquest,  the  disasters  suffered  by  the  colony 
during  his  march,  and  the  plots  that  followed  his 
death,  when  the  Chaldaeans  (now  degenerated  from  a 
great  military  power  to  a  caste  of  "  Magi ")  made 
their  desperate  attempt  to  retrieve  their  fortunes  by 
installing  the  false  Smerdis  as  king  in  Babylon. 
During  all  these  troubles  there  could  be  no  hope 
in  resuming  the  unfinished  work  ;  "  so  it  ceased  .unto 
the  second  year  of  Darius,  king  of  Persia." 

This  politic  and  sagacious  sovereign  was  not  slow 
to  discover  the  error  of  blasting  the  still  loyal  colony 
by  an  ill-timed  jealousy.  The  early  years  of  his  reign 
were  spent  in  quelling  the  insurrections  of  the  prov- 
inces, and  constructing  the  admirable  system  of 
finance  and  police  by  which  he  built  together  the 
disjointed  fragments  of  his  empire.*  The  Jewish  set- 
tlers, encouraged  by  the  return  of  peace,  and  the  ex- 
hortations of  their  prophets  Haggai  and  Zechariah, 
were  already  moving  afresh  in  their  enterprise.  When 
accused  by  Samaritan  informers  as  building  "  a  cita- 
del rather  than  a  temple,"  it  was  easy  to  refer  to  their 
charter  given  by  the  great  Cyrus ;  which  Darius  rati- 
fied at  once,  adding  munificent  gifts,  with  orders  to 
his  satrap  to  encourage  and  defend  them.  Already 
they  had  gathered  something  of  stability  and  comfort 
about  the  settlement.  They  "  dwelt  in  their  ceiled 
houses,"  and   their   defences  were   enough   to   give 

♦  In  the  popular  Persian  phrase,  Cyrus  was  a  father ;  Cambyses,  a 
master;  Darius,  a  truckster,  or  " merchant-king."     Herodotus,  lU.  89. 


POLICY   OF   DARIUS.  301 

colour  to  the  invidious  charges  of  their  neighbours. 
And  in  about  twenty  years  from  the  time  of  their 
first  migration  the  great  task  was  done,  the  seventy 
years  of  desolation  were  accomplished,  and  "  the 
children  of  the  Captivity  kept  the  dedication  of 
this  house  with  joy."     (B.  C.  516.) 

For  more  than  half  a  century,  until  the  time  of 
Ezra,  there  is  absolutely  no  record  of  the  Jewish 
state  ;  *  and  we  find  only  two  or  three  fragments  from 
the  history  of  the  next  hundred  and  fifty  years.  The 
wise  policy  of  Darius  was  followed  by  his  successors, 
who  indeed  were  too  deeply  involved  in  the  great  am- 
bitions and  disasters  of  the  monarchy  to  heed  a  petty 
outlying  province.  That  policy  yielded  to  the  Jews 
a  qualified  independence,  and  trusted  their  strong 
local  partisanship  to  guard  the  exposed  frontier  of 
Judah.  The  sympathy  of  their  numerous  kinspeo- 
ple  in  Babylon  was  a  suflicient  pledge  of  their  fidelity 
to  the  great  king.  Spite  of  their  provincial  bigotry, 
tliey  were  loyal  subjects  in  the  main.  The  little  col- 
ony that  now  represented  the  dominion  of  ancient 
Israel  could  not  safely  bargain  its  allegiance,  or  play 
its  part  among  the  powers  of  the  world.  Its  obscure 
feebleness  was  its  safety.     Its  charter  of  existence 

*  In  some  part  of  this  period,  if  anywhere,  we  are  to  insert  the  nar- 
rative of  Esther  (in  the  reign  of  Xerxes),  and  the  apocryphal  episode  of 
Judith.  (Judith  iv.  8.)  But  the  wreck  of  historical  recollections,  and 
the  hopeless  confusion  of  the  names  of  the  Persian  kings,  manifest  in 
the  Jewish  traditions  of  this  age,  make  it  difficult  to  deal  with  these 
episodes  as  true  matters  of  history.  The  worst  insanity  of  despotic 
caprice  would  scarce  have  sanctioned  the  massacre  of  75,000  subjects^ 
under  colour  of  self-defence  against  an  irrepealable  statute.  (Esther 
vUi.  U,  ix.  16.) 


302  THE   CAPTIVITY. 

it  held  by  sufferance  of  a  stronger  will.  The  great 
storms  of  conquest  blew  over  Judali  to  spend  their 
strength  elsewhere.  The  long  struggle  of  Persian 
and  Greek,  begun  with  the  resentful  invasion  of  Da- 
rius, and  ending  with  the  swift,  broad  conquests  of 
Alexander  in  the  East,  scarce  disturbed  the  little 
hierarchy  that  sheltered  itself  among  the  broken  ram- 
parts of  Jerusalem.  And  when  the  friendly  empire 
is  crushed  under  the  resistless  onset  of  the  Macedo- 
nian, the  petty  Jewish  state  oiTers  no  resistance,  but 
yields  itself,  with  easy  deference,  to  be  the  prize  of 
the  stronger  arm. 

The  Jews  in  Babylon  meanwhile  kept  up  their  re- 
ligious estate  and  sympathies,  with  a  line  of  sacred 
descent  parallel  to  that  in  Jerusalem.  Ezra  was  their 
"principal  priest,"  —  a  man  so  devout  that  he  was 
"  worthy  to  have  been  the  author  of  the  Law,  if  God 
had  not  already  given  that  dignity  to  Moses  ; "  so 
learned  in  the  Scriptures,  that  one  tradition  asserts 
him  to  have  written  out  the  entire  canon  from  mem- 
ory, since  Nebuchadnezzar  had  burned  all  the  sacred 
books.  It  was  a  signal  service  he  rendered  in  the 
interior  development  of  Judaism.  The  attention  of 
Artaxerxes  had  been  somehow  called  to  the  Jewish 
colony,  and  Ezra  was  commissioned  to  be  his  envoy 
to  Jerusalem  (B.  C.  459).  He  was  allowed  to  take 
with  him  all  who  desired  to  join  the  colony  (about 
fifteen  hundred  men),  and  to  carry  rich  gifts  both 
from  his  countrymen  and  from  the  royal  treasury. 
His  spiritual  rank  in  Babylon  gave  weight  to  his  char- 
acter as  champion  of  the  Law ;  and  reports  of  the 
new  state  of  affairs  would  hasten  lii§  embassy  of  re- 


EZRA.  303 

form.  "  The  good  hand  of  his  God  was  upon  him  ;  " 
and  so  full  of  confidence  in  his  divine  mission,  so  full 
of  a  prophet's  faith  and  a  reformer's  zeal  he  set  forth, 
that  he  refused  the  royal  guards,  and  passed  through 
the  hazards  of  the  desert  march  unarmed  and  safe. 
"  For  I  was  ashamed,"  he  says,  "  to  require  of  the 
king  a  band  of  soldiers  and  horsemen  to  help  us 
against  the  enemy  in  the  way  ;  because  we  had  spoken 
to  the  king,  saying.  The  hand  of  our  God  is  upon  all 
them  for  good  that  seek  him,  but  his  power  and  his 
wrath  are  against  all  them  that  forsake  him.  And 
the  hand  of  our  God  was  upon  us ;  and  he  delivered 
us  from  the  hand  of  the  enemy,  and  of  such  as  lay  in 
wait  by  the  way." 

On  a  far  narrower  scale,  yet  with  results  almost  as 
signal  and  strongly  marked,  Ezra  did  for  the  hie- 
rarchy of  Jerusalem  what  Hildebrand  did  long  after 
for  that  of  Rome  :  that  is,  he  gave  it  shape,  coherency, 
and  a  strenuous  discipline,  indispensable  to  its  later 
strength.  His  chief  task  of  external  reform,  too,  was 
like  Hildebrand's, —  to  correct  the  irregularity  and 
abuses  that  had  sprung  up  through  the  "  mixed  mar- 
riages "  of  priest  and  people.  For  the  later  colonists, 
like  the  early  conquerors,  had  broken  the  line  of 
rigid  separation,  and  become  considerably  mingled 
among  the  populations  of  the  land.  Their  excuse 
would  doubtless  be,  that,  as  in  many  another  case, 
the  colonists  were  mostly  men,  and  must  seek  wives 
where  they  might  be  found.  No  heresy  in  faith  or 
depravity  of  morals  is  related  to  have  followed  this 
loosening  of  the  bands  of  law  ;  but  the  popular  con- 
science, trained  to  a  ceremonial  obedience,  readily 


304  THE  CAPTIVITY. 

took  part  with  the  reformer.  The  delinquents  —  a 
hundred  and  fourteen  of  their  names  are  given  — 
were  forced  to  put  away  their  wives  and  children. 
Politic  and  friendly  alliance  must  yield  to  the  rigour 
of  the  creed.  The  strict  and  exclusive  Judaism  of 
the  later  age  had  its  seal  and  illustration  in  the  ritual 
purity  exacted  by  the  zealous  priest. 

The  later  acts  of  Ezra  are  known  to  us  only  by 
distant  tradition,  more  or  less  uncertain.  It  was  he 
that  completed  the  Hebrew  canon  ;  that  wrote  the 
books  of  Chronicles,  as  well  as  the  brief  sequel  which 
bears  his  name  ;  that  introduced  the  square  character 
of  the  Hebrew  text,  and  made  the  inspired  revision 
of  every  line  or  letter  of  the  sacred  books.  The 
name  Malachi,  "  my  Messenger,"  writer  of  the  latest 
prophecy,  is  currently  held  among  the  Jews  to  be  a 
title  of  Ezra.  Apocryphal  legends  tell  of  other  vis- 
ions and  adventures,  and  his  long  conference  with  an 
angel  touching  the  after  fates  of  Zion.*  Various 
reports  of  his  death  place  it  in  extreme  old  age, — 
some,  as  late  as  a  hundred  and  fifty  years.  It  is  his 
true  merit  and  glory,  that,  by  his  reform  of  Jewish 
customs,  and  his  labours  on  the  written  laws  and 
records  of  his  people,  he  more  than  any  man  was 
instrumental  in  giving  shape  and  consistency  to 
the  later  Judaism ;  or,  as  their  saying  is,  in  "  set- 
ting a  hedge  about  their  law.'* 

But  the  sudden  reform  of  Ezra  had  provoked  the 
anger  of  neighbouring  districts,  or  local  disasters  had 
befallen  from  contentions  among  the  greater  powers, 
or  the  whole  enterprise  fell  from  the  first  behind  its 

*  2  Esdras. 


NEHEJVHAH.  305 

hopes.  "  The  remnant  in  the  province  were  in  great 
affliction  and  reproach  ;  the  walls  of  Jerusalem  were 
broken  down ;  its  gates  burned  with  fire ; "  the  peo- 
ple too  few  for  their  own  defence.  So  the  tidings 
came  a  few  years  later  to  Nehemiah,  then  the  king's 
favourite  and  cupbearer  in  Susa.  The  Persian  power 
had  about  this  time  suffered  a  series  of  reverses  from 
the  Athenian  Cimon,  terminating  in  a  defeat  at  Sala- 
mis  in  Cyprus  (just  after  his  death),  which  left  the 
Greeks  masters  of  the  Levant ;  and  the  need  of 
strengthening  a  loyal  province  on  the  exposed  fron- 
tier may  have  favoured  the  expedition  of  Nehemiah. 
Under  the  king's  commission  he  now  entered  on  a 
course  of  vigorous  administration,  which  continued 
near  forty  years.  Roused  by  their  new  leader,  the 
people  rebuilt  within  two  months  their  ruined  fortifi- 
cations,—  a  labour  of  constant  peril,  in  which  "  every 
man  with  one  of  his  hands  wrought  in  the  work,  and 
with  the  other  held  a  weapon."*  And  once  more 
there  was  promise  of  a  well-administered  and  de- 
fended peace. 

But  the  people  were  poor,  and  distressed  with 
dread  of  famine :  many  of  them  under  debt  to  their 
richer  neighbours  to  pay  their  current  tribute  to  the 
government,  and  threatened  with  being  sold  as  slaves. 
Nehemiah  "was  very  angry  when  he  heard  their  cry." 
"  Will  you  even  sell  your  brethren  ?  "  he  demanded 
of  the  usurers;  "•  or  shall  I  buy  them  of  you?"  They 
had  nothing  to  reply  ;  and  in  the  great  tide  of  public 

*  "  Est  igitur  rarus,  rus  qui  colere  audeat,  isque 
Hac  arat  infelix  hac  tenet  arma  manu." 

Ovid,  Tristia,  v.  10,  15. 
T 


306  THE   CAPTIVITY. 

indignation  he  compelled  them  to  restore  the  mort- 
gaged lands  and  vineyards,  and  declared  the  general 
abolishing  of  debt.  Drawn  by  his  own  generous 
example,  gifts  flowed  freely  into  the  sacred  treasury. 
The  deserted  streets  of  Jerusalem  were  repeopled  by 
numbers  from  the  surrounding  country,  who  volun- 
teered for  the  necessary  defence.  The  reform  begun 
by  Ezra  was  sustained  by  the  well-timed  vigour  of 
his  coadjutor,  while  his  own  labours  on  the  law  and 
learning  of  the  state  found  the  advantage  of  securer 
shelter  and  better  aids.  The  "great  Synagogue"  of  a 
hundred  and  twenty  of  the  most  devout  and  learned 
Jews,  —  some  of  whom  the  vague  chronology  makes 
extant  a  century  later,  —  is  related,  with  much  proba- 
bility and  some  fabulous  exaggeration,  to  have  shared 
in  this  pious  service.  The  ritual  law  was  now  for- 
mally established,  or  confirmed  anew  in  its  existing 
shape ;  the  sacred  books  were  publicly  read  by  scribes ; 
and  such  a  celebration  was  had  of  the  great  festival 
of  Tabernacles  as  had  not  been  "  since  the  days  of 
Jeshua  the  son  of  Nun  unto  that  day." 

Returning  to  Susa  when  his  work  seemed  well 
accomplished,  Nehemiah  was  again  recalled  to  the 
task  that  still  required  his  vigorous  and  shaping 
hand,  and  he  scarcely  relinquished  it  until  his 
death,  at  the  age  of  seventy. 

Among  the  later  acts  of  his  administration,  his 
strict  and  impartial  discipline  had  banished  several 
of  the  most  powerful  of  an  opposition  party.  Of 
these  was  Manasseh,  a  man  strong  by  position  as 
high-priest's  son,  and  as  son-in-law  of  the  Samaritan 
prince  or  governor.     His  alliance  had  made  a  dan- 


MANASSEH.  —  MURDER   OF   JOSHUA.  307 

gerous  entrance  to  Samaritan  intrigue,  to  which  his 
exile  put  a  sudden  stop.  His  father-in-law,  to  avenge 
more  completely  his  defeat  and  damaged  pride,  built 
a  rival  temple  on  Mount  Gerizim,  of  which  Manasseh 
was  made  high-priest,  that  the  line  of  regular  de- 
scent, thus  turned  awry,  might  vex  the  religious 
loyalty  of  the  Jews.  Some,  it  is  said,  were  drawn 
away,  —  those  already  discontented  with  the  strict 
rule  of  priest  and  governor,  and  coveting  the  laxity 
of  the  half-gentile  creed.  But  all  the  more  bitter 
was  the  resentment  of  the  faithful.  An  angry  strife 
that  would  not  be  appeased  sprang  from  the  rivalry 
of  the  two  temples  ;  and  the  Jewish  proverb  of  con- 
tempt classes  among  the  unpardonable  foes  of  God 
"the  foolish  people  that  dwell  in  Sichem."*  Ma- 
nasseh, as  the  account  proceeds,  being  of  the  high- 
priest's  family,  had  taken  with  him  a  copy  of  the 
Hebrew  "law,  which  the  Samaritans  mangled  and 
corrupted  to  serve  their  claim  of  orthodoxy  ;  f  so 
that  the  war  of  the  temples  was  further  embittered 
by  controversy  about  the  sacred  books. 

The  next  century  offers  us  only  one  event  of  any 
note,  and  that  a  tragic  one.  The  high-priest  Judah, 
a  generation  after  the  reforms  of  Nehemiah,  left  two 
sons,  Jesus  or  Joshua,  and  John.  The  latter  suc- 
ceeding to  his  father's  dignity,  Joshua  was  suspected 
of  a  plot  with  the  Persian  governor  to  get  the  office 
for  himself.  John  stabbed  him  in  the  temple  ;  and 
personal   resentment   as   well   as   public  justice  de- 

*  Ecclesiasticus  1.  26. 

t  Particularly  in  Deuteronomy  xxvii.  4,  where  the  Samaritan  text 
substitutes  Gerizim  for  Ebal. 


308  THE   CAPTIVITY. 

manded  vengeance  from  the  Persian.  (B.  C.  366.) 
To  the  horror  of  the  Jews,  the  temple  was  now  for 
the  first  time  profaned-  by  Gentile  feet ;  and  the  only 
reply  to  their  remonstrance  was  the  stern  question, 
"  Am  I  not  purer  than  the  murdered  body  ?  "  Al- 
most for  the  first  time  the  imperial  hand  was  felt  for 
chastisement  instead  of  shelter,  in  the  seven  years' 
penance  imposed  upon  the  city  to  expiate  the  sacri- 
legious fratricide.  A  league  with  Egypt  about  this 
time  to  throw  off  the  Persian  yoke  is  also  spoken 
of;  and  this,  with  the  incident  just  told,  may  denote 
the  embittered  party  feeling,  the  religious  degen- 
eracy, and  the  decline  of  loyalty  towards  the  decay- 
ing empire,  that  probably  marked  this  period  of  the 
nation's  life. 

In  five  and  thirty  years  that  empire  had  fallen 
under  the  Macedonian  conquest,  and  Alexander  the 
Great  was  king  in  Babylon.  (B.  C.  331.)  The 
Grecian  arms  had  crushed  the  last  great  Oriental 
dynasty.  An  empire  representing  a  more  advanced 
social  condition,  and  a  higher  type  of  intellect,  now 
supplanted  the  perishing  Asiatic  despotism.  Tlie 
Eastern  world  was  brought  into  new  relations  with 
the  West.  Grecian  language,  science,  and  cultiva- 
tion came  to  explore  and  possess  the  fields  once  held 
by  the  old  theocracies  of  the  East.  The  process  was 
cruel  and  bloody  ;  the  result,  auspicious  and  provi- 
dential. Free  intercourse  among  populations  long 
hostile  and  estranged  enlarged  the  domain  of  peace- 
able commerce.  It  gave  new  and  needed  stimulus 
to  the  advanced  intelligence  of  the  time.  It  opened 
in  new  forms  the   eternal   questions  of  reason  and 


ALEXANDER  IN  JERUSALEM.  309 

faith.  It  tempered  by  Grecian  thought  the  vague- 
ness of  Oriental  theology,  while  it  gave  fresh  food 
to  the  religious  imagination  of  the  speculative  and 
sceptic  Greek.  It  assimilated  by  a  subtile  alchemy 
a  thousand  discordant  elements.  It  established  a 
tongue  flexible  beyond  every  other,  and  of  infinite 
resources,  as  the  common  speech  of  the  civilized 
world ;  and  prepared  the  way  of  thought,  as  the 
Roman  power  prepared  the  way  of  empire,  for  the 
advent  and  swift  conquests  of  a  faith,  claiming  to 
be  universal. 

Results  so  vast  in  their  bearing  on  human  destiny 
were  hidden  from  the  eye  of  man,  though  clear  in 
the  great  scheme  of  an  historic  Providence.  Yet,  in 
its  own  way,  Jewish  legend  has  symbolized  this  equal 
encounter  of  the  two  great  forces,  —  the  West  with 
its  victorious  intellect  and  arms,  the  East  with  its 
victorious  faith.  When  Alexander  the  Great,  on  the 
eve  of  his  final  conquest,  had  come  to  the  country 
of  the  Jews,  an  enemy  of  their  state  accused  their 
narrow  and  unjust  policy,  and  besought  him  to  re- 
duce the  insolent  city  to  subjection.  But  as  he  ap- 
proached, with  his  pomp  of  soldiers  and  his  staff  of 
mighty  captains,  the  Jews  hung  their  streets  with 
holiday  garlands,  and  formed  a  great  procession,  as 
for  some  religious  festival,  and  went  forth  silently, 
clad  all  in  white,  the  high-priest,  with  his  richest 
robes  of  sacrifice,  at  their  head,  to  meet  the  con- 
queror. Their  eager  enemies  looked  now  to  see 
them  humbled  and  given  up  to  them  for  vengeance. 
But  Alexander,  when  he  saw  the  form  and  apparel 
of  the  priest,  gorgeous  with  purple,  scarlet,  and  gold, 


310  THE   CAPTIVITY, 

and  with  the  jewelled  plate  bearing  the  sacred  name 
of  God,  went  reverently  forward  and  bowed  before 
the  priest,  adoring  that  awful  Name.  Then,  when 
his  officers  were  astonished,  and  thought  him  mad, 
he  answered  them,  that  so  in  vision  that  form  had 
appeared  to  him  in  Macedon,  promising  him  victory 
in  that  name ;  and  that  his  triumph  in  the  approach- 
ing battle  was  now  sure.  Having  so  spoken,  he  en- 
fered  the  city,  and  performed  the  solemn  rite  of 
sacrifice ;  and  confirmed  to  the  Jews  all  their  privi- 
leges, and  granted  them  every  favour  that  they  de- 
sired. And  so  the  majesty  of  Jehovah  was  once  more 
manifest,  not  only  in  delivering  the  holy  city  from 
the  vengeance  of  its  enemies,  but  in  receiving  the 
willing  adoration  of  the  mighty  conqueror  of  the 
Eastern  world. 

Twelve  years  later,  Ptolemy,  the  half-brother  of 
Alexander,  having  entered  Jerusalem  as  if  to  take 
part  peaceably  in  the  Sabbath-sacrifice,  made  himself 
violently  master  of  it.  (B.  C.  320.)  Then  followed 
the  long  struggles  of  ambition  between  Syria  and 
Egypt,  which,  after  twenty  years,  left  Judaea  for  a 
century  more  a  dependency  of  the  latter  power.  A 
hundred  thousand  Jewish  captives  are  said  to  have 
been  removed  to  Egypt,  where  their  descendants 
grew  presently  to  a  million,  and  made  two  fifths  of 
the  population  in  the  splendid  capital  city,  Alexan- 
dria. And,  under  the  indulgent  rule  of  the  Ptole- 
mies, each  portion  of  the  Hebrew  stock  was  preparing 
to  take  the  singular  and  important  part  assigned  it 
in  the  great  historic  drama  about  to  be  unfolded. 


X.    THE  MACCABEES. 

THE  annexing  of  Palestine  to  the  realm  of  Ptole- 
my repeats,  as  it  were,  that  event  of  the  early 
history  which  transferred  Israel  and  his  fortunes  to 
Egypt.  As  the  old  hierarchy  of  the  Nile  had  been 
essential  to  the  first  stage  of  Hebrew  development,  so 
the  Greek  arms  and  culture  that  now  displaced  it 
gave  force  and  direction  to  the  last.  And  whether 
in  Palestine  or  Egypt,  the  Jews  began  now  to  be 
powerfully  affected  by  the  new  influences  of  the 
West.  Their  colony  at  Alexandria,  favoured  by  an 
indulgent  dynasty,  had  its  own  temple  and  inde- 
pendent worship  ;  it  was  acted  on,  steadily  and 
profoundly,  by  the  mind  of  Greece  that  found  there 
its  adopted  home ;  and,  dwelling  for  three  centuries 
in  the  intellectual  capital  of  the  world,  brought 
about  that  extraordinary  fusion  of  Greek  and  Ori- 
ental thought,  which  has  acted  so  powerfully  on  the 
modern  mind  in  the  shape  of  the  Catholic  theol- 
ogy. The  Palestinian  branch,  after  long  yielding  to 
the  encroachments  of  foreign  custom,  until  seeming 
altered  and  degenerated  to  the  very  centre,  was  at 
length  roused  to  a  passionate  reaction  by  the  profane 
and  implacable  tyranny  of  its  masters.  Taking  ad- 
vantage of  the  disorder  into  which  the  Syrian  power 


312  THE  MACCABEBS. 

had  fallen,  it  succeeded,  under  a  line  of  heroic  and 
able  champions,  in  reviving  the  lost  sovereignty  of 
Judah.  With  the  alliance,  and  under  the  cautious 
protection  of  Eome,  its  little  monarchy  endured  the 
shocks  of  a  century ;  and  it  still  retained  a  native 
king,  a  population  of  zealous  faith,  a  ritual  unim- 
paired, and  a  temple  of  undiminished  splendour, 
down  to  the  death  of  Herod,  almost  exactly  contem- 
porary with  the  birth  of  Christ. 

For  about  a  century  after  its  treacherous  capture 
by  Ptolemy,  Judaea  was  embraced  in  the  equivocal 
protectorate  of  Egypt.  The  stanch  and  united  col- 
ony, now  grown  to  be  a  populous  little  state,  lay  as  a 
coveted  prize  on  the  Syrian  border.  At  one  time  it 
became  the  basis  of  a  diplomatic  bargain,  or  the  price 
of  a  family  alliance  ;  at  another,  the  spoil  of  war. 
So  bandied  from  hand  to  hand  among  the  quarrel- 
some masters  of  the  East,  "like  a  ship  in  a  storm 
(says  Josephus),  beaten  about  by  the  waves  on  both 
sides,"  it  was  exposed  to  the  rudest  invasion  of  that 
foreign  influence  against  which  its  temper  was  so 
prudently  jealous.  The  subtile  intellect  and  secular 
culture  of  the  Greeks  were  led,  with  their  spread- 
ing maritime  enterprise,  towards  the  little  theocratic 
state  lying  so  near  the  great  highways  of  empire  ;  * 
while  the  victor's  policy  would  work,  by  stealth  or 
violence,  to  suppress  the  arrogant  provincial  creed, 
and  enforce  conformity  with  pagan  ritual.  Thus  the 
integrity  of  the  Jewish  worship  was  perilled  alike  by 
flattery  and  fear.     Among  the  changing  fortunes  of 

*  It  is  now  that  Grecian  names,  as  Palestine,  IdumcBa,  Ptolemais, 
Scythopolis,  begin  to  predominate  over  Hebrew. 


•  SIMON   THE  JUST.  813 

this  period,  the  more  strict  and  resolute  Hebrew 
spirit  was  held  as  it  were  in  abeyance,  or  became  the 
property  of  a  sect.  Nothing  in  the  previous  course 
of  things  prepares  us  to  expect  the  intense  and  sus- 
tained heroism  of  its  reaction,  or  the  inexhaustible 
resources  of  which  it  was  able  to  take  advantage. 

Fortunately  for  the  event,  the  period  of  Egyptian 
conquest  had  coincided  with  the  ten  years  administra- 
tion of  Simon  the  Just,  whom  Jewish  tradition  makes 
a  survivor  of  the  "  Great  Synagogue,"  ascribing  to  him 
a  part  scarce  inferior  to  Ezra  in  the  revival  of  the  Law. 
To  quote  the  words  of  the  son  of  Sirach,  "  he  was  as 
a  morning  star  in  the  midst  of  a  cloud,  and  as  the 
moon  at  the  full ;  as  the  sun  shining  on  the  temple  of 
the  Most  High,  and  as  the  rainbow  beaming  from 
the  bright  clouds."  *  His  prudent  forethought  had 
strengthened,  not  only  the  spiritual  fabric  of  the  Law, 
but  the  outward  defences  of  the  sanctuary,!  so  as  to 
prepare  against  the  twofold  invasion  that  was  im- 
pending. His  life  was  a  revival  of  the  better  hope  of 
Israel.  His  death  was  attended  by  omens  of  popular 
terror ;  the  scapegoat  (that  used  to  be  "  broken  into 
bits  when  scarce  half  way  down  the  precipice  it  was 
thrown  from  ")  fled  from  the  high-priest's  hand,  and 
was  lost  among  the  hills,  or  "  eaten  by  the  Saracens  ;" 
the  sacred  fire  and  lamps  refused  to  burn  ;  the  shew- 
bread  of  the  temple  failed.  J  And  in  the  century  suc- 
ceeding, when  the  nation  had  rallied  from  its  disasters, 

*  Ecclesiasticus  1.  6,  7. 

t  Constructing,  in  place  of  the  ruined  aqueducts   and  imperfect 
fountains,  a  cistern  or  reservoir,  "  in  compass  as  a  sea." 
J  Lightfoot  on  Matthew  iii.  7. 
14 


314  THE  MACCABEES.  * 

his  eloquent   eulogist   enrolls  him  among  the  most 
sacred  and  honoured  names  of  the  elder  history. 

The  little  religious  municipalities  of  Judaea  were 
another  safeguard  in  any  obstinate  struggle  with 
heathenism.  The  colonists,  as  they  dispersed  among 
the  hills  of  Palestine,  carried  everywhere  the  seeds 
of  enterprise,  personal  independence,  and  religious 
loyalty.  Each  village  (as  we  find  it  so  clearly 
marked  in  the  Gospel  times)  made  in  some  regards 
an  independent  community.  Each  had  its  own  syna- 
gogue, on  the  model  of  that  in  the  metropolis,  with 
its  stated  times  of  worship,  and  its  reverent  guardian- 
ship of  the  Law.  Thus  the  fresh  nationality  fastened 
itself  to  the  soil  by  a  thousand  roots  at  once.  Pales- 
tine was  a  fortified  country,  bristling  with  religious 
garrisons,  and  defended  by  a  drilled  militia  of  vet- 
eran "  saints."  *  The  practice  also  of  national  feasts, 
religious  pilgrimages  to  the  temple  at  Jerusalem,  and 
pious  oblations,  which  gradually  amassed  surprising 
stores  of  wealth  in  the  sacred  treasury,  made  a  con- 
stant counterpoise  to  the  roving  temper  of  this  trader- 
race,  and  kept  in  check  the  tendency  to  merge  and 
lose  itself  among  gentile  populations.  The  Palestin- 
ian Jews  climg  with  a  fervid  and  exclusive  devo- 
tion about  their  own  temple  and  city,  however  dis- 
tant their  commercial  migrations,  or  however  profaned 
the  holy  places  might  be  by  heathen  invasion,  impure 
rites,  or  fratricidal  violence.  Their  first  moment  of 
complete  sovereignty  they  improved  to  destroy  the 
rival  temple  on  Mount  Gerizim  ;  and  no  "  abomina- 
tion of  desolation"  their  capital  might  suffer  from 

*  Cliasidira. 


HELLENISM.  816 

infidel  conquerors  could  excuse  in  their  eyes  the 
sacrilege  of  dedicating  to  Jehovah  another  shrine  in 
Egypt.  Thus  something  of  the  old  Hebrew  spirit, 
in  a  narrower  and  intenser  form,  abode  in  Palestine 
unimpaired  ;  and  was  strengthened  alike  to  survive 
the  insidious  undermining  of  Grecian  scepticism,  or 
to  drive  the  persecutor  back  witli  sharper  weapons 
than  his  own. 

The  busy  and  pervasive  intellect  of  the  Greeks, 
already  in  its  decline,  began  presently  to  invade  this 
stronghold  of  religious  loyalty.  The  flattering  fa- 
vours of  Ptolemy,  who  had  bought  at  princely  cost 
the  literary  treasures  of  Hebrew  Scripture,  first 
opened  the  way  to  something  like  equal  intercourse 
between  the  Jew  and  Greek.  This  was  favoured  on 
one  side  by  the  wide  dispersion  of  the  Jews  through 
maritime  and  trading  enterprise,  and  by  alliances 
and  fancied  consanguinities  with  foreign  states ;  *  on 
the  other  by  the  Grecian  genius,  at  once  organizing 
and  speculative,  which  began  to  remould  the  forms 
of  Oriental  civilization,  and  to  trace  out  the  novel 
elements  of  thouglit  or  faith  in  the  Asiatic  mind. 

The  intellectual  compromise  thus  brought  about 
was  manifest  among  the  Jews  chiefly  in  that  phase  of 
doctrine  known  to  us  as  Sadduceeism.  The  Sadducees 
were  in  their  origin  a  rationalizing  or  Hellenizing 
sect,  whatever  they  may  afterwards  have  become  as  a 
political  party.  As  such,  tliey  were  averse  to  the 
intense  intolerance  of  the  Chasidim,  or  "  saints,"  and 
would  be  looked  on  in  turn  by  them  as  little  better 

*  As  with  the  Parthians  and  Spartans.  (See  Josephus,  XIV.  10,  22 ; 
1  Mace  xii.  21.) 


316  THE  MACCABEES. 

than  infidels  or  traitors.  Their  stronghold  was  a 
professed  conservatism  ;  adhering  to  the  Mosaic  law 
alone,  which  they  rendered  in  their  barren  fashion, 
and  denouncing  the  prophetic  dreams,  or  foreign 
fables,  which  so  won  the  enthusiasm  of  the  more 
pious. 

And  so  sectarian  lines  began  to  divide  the  nation. 
On  one  side,  Babylonish  theosophy  and  fable  min- 
gled with  the  tenacious  ritualism  of  the  more  devout, 
to  make  the  popular  creed,  and  found  the  sect  of 
Pharisees  ;  on  the  other,  new  ideas  and  customs  from 
the  West  gave  something  of  a  cosmopolite  and  aris- 
tocratic tone  to  their  rationalist  opponents.  And 
while  party  lines  were  thus  drawn,  and  party  dissen- 
sions imbittered,  many  kept  aloof  from  them  all ;  and 
revolting  from  those  who  "  made  an  art  or  trade  of 
piety,"  withdrew  to  an  ascetic,  unsocial,  and  monastic 
life,  to  which  certain  Egyptian  mystics  already  began 
to  show  the  way,  —  substituting  the  ecstasies  of  de- 
votion for  the  plainer  practices  of  piety,  repute  as 
exhorters  or  wonder-workers  for  popular  show  or 
political  intrigue,  the  spirit  of  a  community  or  clan 
for  patriotism,  solitary  penance  or  barren  toils  for 
home  and  social  duties.  And  thus,  in  this  century 
of  political  revolution,  invading  doubt,  and  intellect- 
ual compromise,  we  naturally  find  germs  of  the  three 
well-known  sects  that  afterwards  divided  the  Jewish 
state,  —  the  Pharisees,  Sadducees,  and  Essenes. 

Of  the  character  of  the  Egyptian  rule  only  a  single 
illustration  is  given.  The  avarice  or  craft  of  Onias, 
the  high-priest,  had  kept  back  for  several  years  the 
tribute  due  to  Ptolemy  ;  and  a  corps  of  "  farmers  of 


JOSEPH  THE  TAX-GATHERER.  —  ANTIOCHUS.       317 

the  revenue  "  were  about  to  bid  for  the  privilege  of 
legal  pillage,  —  the  old  way  of  collecting  government 
taxes.  But  a  young  man  Joseph,  sent  as  envoy  to 
Ptolemy,  succeeds  by  his  bold  frankness  in  winning 
the  king's  good  humour,  and  carries  his  point  by  bid- 
ding twice  as  high  as  any  other,  naming  the  king 
himself  as  his  security.  With  a  retinue  of  armed 
men  to  make  the  royal  indorsement  good,  he  puts  to 
death  the  wealthiest  men  of  one  or  two  refractory 
towns,  confiscating  their  estates;  and  for  more 
than  twenty  years  succeeds  not  only  in  forwarding 
the  promised  sum,  but  in  bringing  out  the  industry 
and  resources  of  the  province,  and  so  leaving  the 
people  far  more  flourishing  than  he  found  them, 
while  he  dies  immensely  rich.  But  a  violent  family 
feud  breaks  out  after  his  death.  His  youngest  son, 
Hyrcanus,  is  driven  beyond  the  Jordan,  where  he 
closer  a  career  of  marauding  with  death  by  his  own 
hand ;  and  at  the  same  time  we  find  a  powerful  in- 
clination among  the  Jews  to  revolt  from  Egypt,  and 
accept  the  conquering  sovereignty  of  Syria.  The 
Jews  in  Egpyt  are  threatened  with  indiscriminate 
massacre,  which  they  scarce  escape  ;  and  Antiochus 
the  Great  wrests  the  whole  district  of  Palestine  from 
the  feebler  grasp  of  Ptolemy,  first  winning  the  Jew's 
good-will  by  many  singular  favours.*  B.  C.  205-198. 
By  this  revolution  Antioch  became  one  of  the  most 
important  head-quarters  of  the  Aramaean  Jews,  as 
distinguished  from  the  Hellenistic,  whose  metropolis 
was  Alexandria. 

It  is  just  here  that  the  Republic  of  Rome  begins  to 

*  See  the  detail  of  them  in  Josephus,  XII.  3,  4. 


318       '  THE  MACCABEES. 

be  powerful  in  the  East,  and  its  career  of  conquest 
to  be  heralded  by  its  presence  as  umpire  in  Asiatic 
quarrels.  Hannibal  had  just  been  overthrown  at 
Zama,  and  the  unchallenged  sovereignty  of  the  West- 
ern world  lay  with  the  great  Italian  city.  Alarm  for 
their  own  dominion  began  to  be  felt  among  the  suc- 
cessors of  Alexander.  Antiochus  leagued  himself 
with  Philip  of  Macedon,  and  invited  the  exile  Hanni- 
bal to  his  court.  The  league  was  broken  by  the  de- 
feat of  Philip  and  the  death  of  the  two  other  allies. 
^But  while  Rome  remained,  in  fact,  arbiter  of  the 
East,  it  was  her  prudent  policy  for  yet  another  cen- 
tury to  keep  the  balance  of  power  there,  and  not  lay 
her  grasp  qu  the  small,  divided  sovereignties  which  it 
was  more  profitable  to  play  off  against  each  other. 
Judaea  was  but  the  chance  victim  of  a  game  between 
Syria  and  Egypt,  under  the  vigilant  and  wary  suffer- 
ance of  Rome.  » 

Antiochus  Epiphanes*  —  a  name  of  eternal  infamy 
in  history  —  was  a  young  man,  brave  and  handsome, 
as  his  coins  show  him,  and  a  true  Greek  in  his  love 
of  art ;  but  frivolous  and  obstinate,  sensual,  cruel, 
and  superstitious.  From  his  victories  in  Egypt,  which 
he  was  fast  reducing  to  subjection,  he  was  warned  off 
by  the  formidable  voice  of  Rome,  whose  alliance  was 
sued  by  Ptolemy.  But  the  same  patient  policy  that 
drove  him  from  the  Nile  left  him  now  unmolested  in 
Juda3a  ;  and  it  was  not  till  a  point  of  resistance  was 
already  found  in  the  indomitable  temper  of  the  peo- 
ple, that  the  career  of  his  profligate  tyranny  was 

*  Epiphanes  or  Epimanes,  —  the  glorious  or  the  furious  ;  for  Greek 
wit  delighted  in  this  play  of  names. 


HELIODORUS.  —  JASON.  319 

stayed,  and  Rome  assumed  a  remote  protectorate  of 
Palestine. 

A  little  before,  Heliodorus,  the  treasurer  of  the 
Syrian  king,  being  sent  to  seize  the  sacred  treasures 
betrayed  to  him  by  one  of  the  rival  priests,  had  been 
driven  off  in  deadly  fright.  "  For  there  appeared  a 
horse,  with  a  terrible  rider  upon  him,  clad  in  com- 
plete harness  of  gold,  and  he  ran  fiercely  and  smote 
at  Heliodorus  with  his  fore  feet :  moreover  two  young 
men  notable  in  strength,  excellent  in  beauty,  and  of 
gorgeous  apparel  stood  by  him  on  either  side,  and 
scourged  him  with  many  sore  stripes  ;  and  Heliodo- 
rus fell  suddenly  to  the  ground,  and  lay  speechless, 
without  all  hope  of  life."  And  so  the  sacrilegious 
plunder  was  prevented  for  a  time. 

But  the  king's  rapacity  was  roused,  and  watchful 
of  its  opportunity.  This  was  soon  found  in  the 
party  strifes  and  Hellenizing  spirit  among  the  ruling 
Jews  themselves.  Joshua  (who,  affecting  Grrecian 
fashion,  called  himself  Jason)  purchased  from  Anti- 
ochus,  by  a  bribe  of  three  hundred  and  sixty  talents, 
his  support  as  high-priest ;  and  the  most  sacred 
dignity  was  thus  openly  set  to  sale,  and  bought  of  a 
foreign  despot.  The  office  got  by  his  heathen  alli- 
ance Jason  administered  in  a  way  worthy  of  the 
bargain.  The  charges  against  him  are  sufficiently 
explicit,  and  very  bitter.  He  "  forthwith  brought 
his  own  nation  to  the  Greekish  fashion ; "  he  com- 
pelled young  men  to  adopt  a  foreign  dress ;  he 
established  a  gymnasium  where  the  nude  contests 
of  the  Greeks  came  in  fashion,  and  unworthy  Jews 
"  made  themselves  uncircumcised ; "  he  terrified  the 


320  THE  MACCABEES. 

priests  from  the  performance  of  sacred  rites ;  he 
sent  rich  gifts  to  a  shrine  of  Hercules,  which  the 
messengers,  in  terror  at  the  sacrilege,  "  employed 
to  the  making  of  galleys."  *  Within  two  years  Jason 
was  outbid  by  his  own  envoy,  Onias  or  Menelaus, 
who,  for  about  the  same  space,  played  a  like  game 
of  plunder  and  sacrilege,  "  increasing  in  malice,  and 
being  a  great  traitor  to  the  citizens,"  till  Jason, 
hearing  a  false  rumour  of  Antiochus's  death,  "  took 
at  least  a  thousand  men,  and  suddenly  made  an 
assault  upon  the  city,"  which  he  entered  and  treated 
with  merciless  revenge.  But  Antiochus  returning, 
baffled  and  in  a  rage,  from  his  campaign  in  Egypt, 
retook  the  city  with  great  violence  and  slaughter. 
It  was  on  the  Sabbath  ;  and  of  the  helpless,  unre- 
sisting crowd,  "  forty  thousand  were  slain  in  the 
conflict,  and  no  fewer  sold   than  slain." 

Such  was  the  course  of  tyrannous  apostasy  that 
now  exposed  the  Jews  to  the  horrors  of  a  religious 
persecution.  Antiochus  took  with  him  from  Jerusa- 
lem the  prodigious  spoil  of  eighteen  hundred  talents, 
and  left  there,  as  governor,  a  man  "  for  his  country, 
a  Phrygian,  and  for  manners  more  barbarous  than 
he  that  set  him  there,"  with  the  bloody  commission 
to  root  out  the  Jewish  religion  at  all  hazards.  Every 
injunction  of  the  ritual  was  forbidden.  Mothers 
who  secretly  performed  the  rite  of  circumcision  were 
strangled  with  their  infants  in  their  arms.  Under 
an  edict  of  "  uniformity,"  the  Jewish  was  made  to 
conform  to  the  Pagan  ritual.  The  temple  at  Jerusa- 
lem was   dedicated   to   Zeus  Olympius,  as  that  on 

*  2  Mace.  chap.  iv. 


ANTIOCHUS  EPIPHANES.  —  MATTATHIAS.  321 

Gerizim  had  already  been  to  Zeus,  the  strangers' 
god.  Jews  were  forced  to  bear  wreaths  of  ivy  in 
Dionysiac  festivities.  The  sacred  books  were  hunted 
out  everywhere  and  burned,  those  who  hid  them 
being  put  to  death.  As  the  bitterest  insult  to 
Hebrew  custom,  swine  were  slain  on  every  altar ; 
and  Jews  were  compelled  to  sacrifice  or  eat  the 
unclean  flesh  under  penalty  of  the  most  frightful 
tortures.*  Freethinkers  and  Greeks  seemed  com- 
pletely victorious  for  a  time.  Antiochus  had  his 
party  and  his  spies  in  Jerusalem ;  he  "  mocked  at 
every  god  but  Mars  ; "  and  his  boast  was  that  he 
had  "  abolished  the  deify  of  the  Jews." 

It  was  at  this  point,f  when  the  long-brooding 
hostility  between  native  faith  and  foreign  innovation 
had  come  to  a  head,  and  nothing  less  than  the  very 
existence  of  the  Jewish  name  and  religion  was  at 
stake,  that  the  reaction  took  place,  astonishing  alike 
for  its  desperate  hardihood  and  its  brilliant  success, 
—  a  struggle  which  beat  back  the  whole  invading 
tide  of  heathenism,  and  gave  immortal  glory  to  the 
name  of  the  Maccabees. 

An  old  man,  Mattathias,  son  of  Asmonai,  who  lived 
in  the  hill-country  of  Judaea  towards  the  sea,  struck 
down  an  apostate  Jew  whom  he  saw  offering  a  Pagan 
sacrifice.    It  was  the  signal  of  open  resistance.    Mat- 

*  See  the  tragical  story  of  the  mother  and  her  seven  sons,  2  Mace, 
chap.  vii. 

t  To  this  period,  most  probably,  belongs  the  composition  of  the 
"Book  of  Daniel,"  with  its  Messianic  visions  and  its  apocryphal 
additions ;  possibly,  too,  the  Book  of  Enoch.  We  are  also  told  of 
"Psalms  of  Solomon,"  a  book  deeply  tinged  with  the  same  style 
of  thought,  in  which  the  expression  Xpioros-  Kvpios  occurs. 

14*  u 


322  THE  MACCABEES. 

tatliias  roused  a  party  of  zealous  religionists  ;  at- 
tacked the  royal  troop,  and  drove  them  off  with 
slaughter  of  several ;  and  then  fled  with  a  large 
company  of  the  bold  and  faithful  to  the  caves  and 
glens  of  the  same  mountain  region  that  had  sheltered 
the  outlaw  David. 

The  five  sons  of  Mattathias  —  John,  Simon,  Judas, 
Eleazar,  and  Jonathan  —  became  the  bold,  wary,  and 
skilful  leaders  of  the  revolt.  They  all  died,  one  by 
one,  by  treachery  or  violence,  but  not  before  they 
had  sustained  the  banner  of  Judah  for  more  than 
thirty  years.  From  their  mountain  retreat  they  now 
descended  as  they  had  opportunity  upon  the  plains 
and  villages.  They  overthrew  pagan  altars ;  slew 
their  apostate  countrymen  ;  "  what  children  soever 
they  found  within  the  coast  of  Israel  uncircumcised 
those  they  circumcised  valiantly ; "  and  held  out 
with  marvellous  success  and  skill  against  every  party 
despatched  to  hunt  them  down.  Their  followers 
were  mostly  of  the  sect  known  as  Chasidim,  —  saints 
or  purists  —  fanatic  zealots  of  the  law,  with  all  the 
dauntless  energy,  the  fierce  enthusiasm,  the  implaca- 
ble and  resolute  faith  of  the  Covenanters,  whom  in 
position  and  fortune  they  so  much  resemble.  Their 
creed  did  not  suffer  them  to  strike  a  blow  in  self- 
defence  upon  their  Sabbath  ;  and,  seizing  this  advan- 
tage, their  pursuers  once  smothered  a  thousand  of 
them  together  in  a  cave.  Then  Mattathias  urged 
the  clear  necessity  to  overbear  the  fatal  scruple  ;  and 
the  loyal  band  were  thereafter  unconquerable.  Dy- 
ing in  his  fastness  the  following  year,  the  stern  old 
man  gave  his  third  son  Judas,  named  the  Maccabee, 


JUDAS  THE  MACCABEE.  323 

the  charge  of  leader,  and  bade  him  "  recompense 
fully  the  heathen,  and  take  heed  to  the  command- 
ments of  the  Law."  So  Judas  and  his  companions 
banded  themselves  anew,  and  "  fought  with  cheerful- 
ness tlie  battle  of  Israel." 

The  war  of  defence  was  presently  changed  into  one 
of  attack  by  the  bold  and  sagacious  chieftain.  The 
smaller  parties  sent  against  him  he  invariably  cut  to 
pieces  at  every  odds.  When  a  force  of  near  fifty 
thousand  was  sent  by  Antiochus  to  capture  his  few 
hundreds,  and  a  detachment  of  five  thousand  came 
to  surprise  him  by  night,  Judas  was  beforehand  with 
his  assault,  took  the  enemies'  camp  with  great  spoil, 
and  put  the  whole  host  to  flight ;  then  the  next  year 
totally  routed  a  much  greater  force,  so  that  the  whole 
southern  region  was  in  his  possession.  Now  was  the 
time  to  rescue  and  purify  the  sacred  city.  "  Jerusa- 
lem lay  void  as  a  wilderness ;  there  was  none  of 
her  children  that  went  in  or  out :  the  sanctuary  also 
was  trodden  down,  and  aliens  kept  the  stronghold ; 
the  heathen  had  their  habitation  in  that  place ;  and 
joy  was  taken  from  Jacob,  and  the  pipe  with  the 
harp  ceased.  .  .  .  And  when  they  saw  the  sanctuary 
desolate,  and  the  altar  profaned,  and  the  gates  burned 
up,  and  shrubs  growing  in  the  courts  as  in  a  forest 
or  in  one  of  the  mountains,  yea,  and  the  priests' 
chambers  pulled  down,  they  rent  their  clothes,  and 
made  great  lamentation,  and  cast  ashes  on  their 
heads,  and  fell  down  flat  to  the  ground  upon  their 
faces,  and  blew  an  alarm  with  the  trumpet,  and 
cried  towards  heaven."  The  pious  victors  effected 
the  purifying  of  the  temple,  and  such  repairs  as  were 


324  THE  MACCABEES. 

within  their  power  ;  and  then,  in  the  joy  of  their 
triumph,  they  established  the  great  winter  festival  of 
Dedication.  (B.  C.  165.)  The  fortifications  of  the  city 
were  now  restored,  and  the  ancient  capital,  wrecked 
and  dismantled  by  the  shocks  of  its  great  convulsion, 
still  gave  shelter  against  any  sudden  assault. 

The  region  in  which  Judas  had  won  some  degree 
of  independence  and  security  was  blasted  and  deso- 
late from  its  still  fresh  disasters,  and  his  position  was 
one  of  extreme  hazard.  Fortunately,  Antiochus  had 
drawn  off  his  main  strength  in  some  schemes  of  con- 
quest towards  the  east.  He  was  defeated,  and  died 
on  his  return,  —  the  Jewish  account  says,  in  the  an- 
guish of  remorse  at  his  atrocities.  His  treasury  was 
empty,  and  little  seems  to  have  been  dreaded  from 
that  quarter  for  some  years,  unless  it  were  an  act  of 
treachery.  But  there  were  jealousies  among  neigh- 
bouring states  to  be  guarded  against,  and  hostilities 
to  be  suppressed  "by  a  marauding  and  border  war. 
This  Judas  waged  successfully  for  some  five  years. 
Dividing  his  force  into  three  parties,  and  victorious 
both  by  the  terror  of  his  own  name  and  the  skill  of 
his  brother  Simon,  he  reconquered  almost  the  whole 
soil  of  Palestine.  Hostile  towns  his  troops  laid 
waste  with  all  the  horrors  of  old  Hebrew  vengeance. 
Pagan  temples  he  demolished  with  Jewish  icono- 
clastic zeal.  Combining  his  power  as  military  com- 
mander with  the  high-priest's  office,  he  ruled  justly 
and  humanely  the  people  whose  freedom  his  sword 
had  won.  He  still  further  fortified  himself  by  a 
strict  alliance  with  the  Romans,  "  hearing  that  they 
were  mighty  and  valiant  men,  and  such  as  would 


JUDAS   AND   JONATHAN.  325 

lovingly  accept  all  that  joined  themselves  unto  them, 
and  make  a  league  of  amity  with  all  that  came  to 
them."  This  league  seems  to  have  been  of  no  prac- 
tical avail,  except  as  it  may  have  given  more  con- 
sequence to  the  position  of  the  Jewish  chieftain.  A 
Syrian  garrison  was  still  unsubdued  that  commanded 
half  the  temple-hill ;  and  an  army  of  a  hundred  thou- 
sand, mustering  the  desert-hordes,  assailed  him  on 
the  south.  Jerusalem  was  forced  to  surrender,  on 
condition  that  the  laws  and  customs  of  the  nation 
should  be  unmolested  ;  and  again  the  sacred  city 
suffered  from  the  feuds  occasioned  by  a  false  high- 
priest.  One  more  desperate  battle  set  the  city  free 
from  its  invaders,  and  left  Judas  a  little  longer 
master  of  the  field.  But  in  a  Syrian  attack  that  fol- 
lowed he  was  surrounded  by  a  host  of  more  than 
twenty  thousand  against  three,  deserted  by  the  main 
part  of  his  own  force,  enveloped  in  the  wings  of  the 
army  he  had  already  in  part  discomfited,  and  killed 
fighting.  Such  was  the  life  and  fate  of  Judas  the 
Maccabee. 

His  brother  Jonathan  succeeded  to  the  high-priest- 
hood and  the  chief  command  (B.  C.  160).  He  was 
a  man  yet  more  subtle  and  wary  in  stratagem,  and 
of  infinite  resource  for  the  hazards  of  the  long  strug- 
gle that  still  had  to  be  maintained,  and  for  a  time 
again  by  guerilla  parties  in  the  wilderness.  The 
Roman  alliance  —  in  which  he  renewed  the  policy  of 
Judas  —  was  still  of  little  service,  except  as  giving 
moral  weight  to  the  Jews'  declaration  of  independ- 
ence. Something  more  practical  and  effective  was 
found  in  bargaining  with  the  rival  heirs  of  Antiochus, 


326  THE  MACCABEES. 

Demetrius  and  Alexander,  from  each  of  whom  Jon- 
athan got  such  terms  of  political  recognition  and 
immunity  from  tribute  as  to  give  him  a  real  sover- 
eignty. The  terms  of  alliance  recognized  him  as  high- 
priest  and  ruler.  It  gave  him  the  nominal  jurisdic- 
tion of  the  fortress  on  a  mound  between  Zion  and 
Moriah,  from  which  the  citizens  were  still  plundered 
and  harassed,  and  which  Judas  was  never  able  to 
subdue  ;  and  released  the  Jews  "  from  tribute,  salt 
tax,  crown  tax,  the  third  of  seed-corn,  the  half  of 
fruit,  tithes,  and  tributes  of  their  cattle."  Jonathan 
proved  himself  a  trusty  ally,  and  once  relieved  the 
king  from  the  terror  of  a  formidable  insurrection 
that  had  broken  out  at  Antioch.  It  was  in  fear  of 
his  good  faith  that  one  of  the  royal  officers,  plotting 
a  conspiracy  against  the  king,  entrapped  him  in  a 
tower  at  Ptolemais,  slaughtered  the  men  of  his  guard, 
and  afterwards  murdered  him,  first  taking  the  treas- 
ure and  hostages  sent  for  his  ransom  ;  and  his  death 
was  lamented  "as  far  as  Sparta  and  at  Rome." 
(B.  C.  143.) 

John,  the  eldest  brother,  had  already  been  cap- 
tured and  killed  in  an  ambuscade.  Eleazar  had 
been  crushed  under  the  weight  of  an  armed  elephant 
which  he  had  thrust  through  the  belly  with  his  sword 
in  the  great  Syrian  invasion  of  the  south.  Of  the 
five  brothers  there  now  remained  only  Simon,  the 
most  prudent  and  able  administrator  of  all.  Him 
the  people  at  once  welcomed  to  the  supreme  com- 
mand, "  well  pleased  that  Simon  should  be  their 
governor  and  high-priest  forever,  until  a  faithful 
prophet  [Messiah]  should  appear."     His  administra- 


SIMON.  —  JOHN  HYECANUS.  327 

tion  marks  the  era  of  returning  prosperity  and  peace 
to  Israel.  His  alliance  with  the  dominant  party  in 
Syria  gave  him  an  unmolested  rule.  The  hostile 
fortress  in  Jerusalem,  the  monument  of  so  much 
disaster,  was  levelled  to  the  ground,  —  the  garrison 
being  first  starved  out,  —  and  the  hill  it  stood  on 
shorn  to  an  even  plain.  As  a  mark  of  sovereign 
power,  Simon  had  the  right  granted  him  of  striking 
coin  ;  and  silver  shekels,  with  their  Syriac  inscription 
betokening  his  wise  and  peaceful  rule,  are  found  in 
cabinets  of  the  curious  at  tliis  day.  "  He  took  Joppa 
for  an  haven,  and  made  an  entrance  to  the  isles  of 
the  sea ;  the  law  he  searched  out,  and  every  contemn- 
er of  the  law  and  wicked  person  he  took  away."  In 
his  only  struggles  against  foreign  power  he  was  fully 
successful.  At  home,  the  regency  and  priesthood 
were  both  made  hereditary  in  his  house.  His  three 
grown  sons  were  of  ability  to  be  intrusted  with  the 
more  remote  and  active  enterprises,  while  he  himself 
maintained  at  home  a  prosperous  and  brilliant  peace 
for  about  eight  years.  • 

Although  Simon,  with  two  of  his  sons,  followed  the 
fortune  of  his  house  in  suffering  a  violent  death,  — 
being  treacherously  murdered  at  a  banquet,  —  a  third 
son,  John  Hyrcanus,  survived  him,  and  became  father 
of  the  brief  line  of  "  Asmonaean  kings."  His  own 
reign  lasted  almost  thirty  years.  The  military  priest- 
hood of  the  Maccabees  had  not  only  revived  the  old 
heroic  memories  of  the  Hebrew  race,  but  had  ren- 
dered back  to  Israel  the  undisputed  possession  of  the 
Holy  Land.  Edom  (hereafter  better  known  by  its 
Greek  name,  Idumaea)  was  incorporated  with  Judah, 


328  THE  MACCABEES. 

to  be  afterwards  more  closely  identified  with  the  Jew- 
ish fortunes,  through  the  Herodian  family.  The  vin- 
dictive jealousy  of  the  Jews  had  its  triumph  in  the 
complete  destruction  of  the  temple  on  Mount  Geri- 
zim,  and  the  ruin  of  the  beautiful  "  hill-city "  of 
Samaria,  which  was  not  only  dismantled  and  for- 
saken, but  its  abundant  water-springs  turned  to  make 
of  its  very  streets  an  uninhabitable  marsh.  With  secu- 
rity and  quiet  returned  the  arts  of  peace  ;  and  as  the 
day  of  persecution  and  conflict  had  stimulated  afresh 
the  people's  quenchless  patriotic  or  Messianic  hopes, 
recorded  in  such  books  as  Daniel,  Judith,  and  Enoch, 
so  now,  in  the  last  age  of  native  Hebrew  literature, 
we  find  the  more  calm,  but  no  less  characteristic 
compositions  of  the  son  of  Sirach,  with  the  pictorial 
and  stirring  narrative  of  the  "  Maccabees." 

The  victorious  independence  of  Judaea  gave  new 
occasion  also  to  the  strife  of  native  sects.  All  par- 
ties had  become  thoroughly  nationalized  in  the  long 
struggle  ;  and  there  is  no  longer  on  any  side  the  pro- 
fession of  compromise  with  the  Greeks.  But  the  sect 
of  Sadducees  still  retained  its  character  of  a  certain 
exclusiveness,  scepticism,  and  intellectual  pride, — 
the  qualities  that  had  made  it  court  the  intellectual 
aristocracy  of  Grecian  culture.  They  had  never  adopt- 
ed, and  they  now  thoroughly  disowned,  the  Oriental 
theosophy,  and  the  doctrines  of  *'  resurrection,  angels, 
and  spirits,"  which  were  welcomed  so  fondly  by  the 
more  religious  among  the  Jews ;  and  fell  back  on  the 
code  of  primitive  Mosaism  (or  what  was  received  as 
such),  as  offering  the  simplest  outline  of  religious 
thought,  and  the  least  hinderance  to  their  Epicurean 


JOHN  HYECAKUS.  —  THE  PHARISEES.  329 

speculations  and  philosophical  free-will.  Their  ad- 
vantage and  power  lay  in  times  of  peace.  In  the 
century  preceding  the  great  convulsion,  theirs  had 
been  the  dominant  party  up  to  the  threatened  absorp- 
tion of  the  national  creed  itself  in  the  encroaching 
Hellenism. 

But  the  period  of  struggle,  which  drew  sharp  the 
party  lines,  and  committed  every  man  either  for  or 
against  his  native  land  and  ritual,  had  given  ascend- 
ency to  the  stricter  sect  of  Pharisees,  represented  by 
the  indispensable  and  uncompromising  bigotry  of  the 
Chasidim.  The  dynasty  of  the  Maccabees,  sprung 
from  their  stanch  and  indomitable  loyalty,  naturally 
looked  to  them  for  support ;  and  John  Hyrcanus,  an 
intelligent  and  able  constitutional  prince,  was  identi- 
fied with  that  party  till  near  the  close  of  his  reign. 
But  bigotry  and  spiritual  pride  are  more  profitable 
allies  in  a  struggle  at  odds  against  a  relentless  despot- 
ism, than  useful  auxiliaries  in  an  administration  of 
peace.  The  Pharisees  made  affairs  of  state  subordi- 
nate to  ritual  scruples  and  the  petty  policies  of  a  s'ect, 
—  cruel  or  lenient  by  turns,  still  seeking  to  be  popu- 
lar. Though  apparently  on  friendly  terms,  a  jealousy 
grew  up  between  them  and  the  government,  till  one 
of  them,  in  phrase  more  broad  than  courteous,  re- 
proached John  as  low-born  and  no  true  heir,  and 
bade  him  show  his  good  faith  as  ruler  by  laying  down 
his  power.  The  Pharisee  leaders  would  not  allow 
this  to  be  an  act  of  treason  ;  and,  professing  to  be 
loyal  themselves,  they  shielded  the  disloyalty  of  their 
associate.  So  John  broke  openly  with  them,  and  his 
rule  found  its  natural  support  or  ally  in  the  rival 
sect. 


330  THE  MACCABEES. 

With  John  Hyrcanus  expired  the  priestly  regency 
of  this  heroic  family.  In  him  were  combined  all  the 
elements  of  a  position  of  command  ;  for,  besides  his 
birth  and  personal  qualities,  he  was  at  once  a  king  in 
sway,  high-priest  by  office,  and  a  prophet  in  the  pop- 
ular reverence.  The  Roman  alliance  gave  him,  too, 
the  advantage  of  a  citizen,  in  some  sense,  of  the 
imperial  city  ;  while  the  dissensions  at  Rome,  begun 
by  the  civil  reforms  of  Gracchus,  and  resulting  in  the 
proscriptive  massacres  of  Marius  and  Sylla,  deferred 
for  another  generation  the  great  spoils  of  ambition  in 
the  East.  Thus,  favoured  both  by  the  strength  and 
weakness  of  its  protector,  the  power  of  John  descended 
without  dispute  to  his  sons,  Aristobulus,  and  after- 
wards Alexander,  the  first  to  whom  the  title  of  king 
is  usually  given.  Their  authority  rested  on  a  differ- 
ent base  from  that  of  their  heroic  ancestry.  It  was 
not  religious  prestige  or  the  priestly  office  or  personal 
service  to  the  state,  but  the  claim  of  birth,  the  divine 
right  of  kings,  which  assumed  a  regal  title,  and  held 
the  diadem  bestowed  or  allowed  by  Rome. 

These  Jewish  princes*  were  as  wide  apart  in 
character  as  in  name  from  the  house  whose  honours 

*  Called  the  Asmonaean  kings.    The  genealogy  of  the  house  of  As- 
monai,  better  known  by  the  heroic  name  of  Maccabees,  is  as  follows :  — 

1.  Mattathias,  son  of  Asmonai. 

2.  Sons  of  Mattathias,  — John,  Simon,  Judas,  Eleazar,  Jonathan. 

3.  Sons  of  Simon,  — John  Hyrcanus,  Judas,  Alexander. 

4.  Sons  of  John  Hyrcanus,  —  Aristobulus,  Antigonus,  Alexander 
Jannajus. 

5.  Sons  of  Alexander,  —  Hyrcanus  (executed  by  Herod  at  the  age  of 
eighty)  and  Aristobulus  (poisoned  by  partisans  of  Pompey). 

6.  Sons  of  Aristobulus^-^  Alexander  and  Antigonus  (both  executed 
by  the  Romans). 


ALEXANDER  JANNJIUS.  331 

tliey  inherited.  Aristobulus,  the  bloody,  in  his  reign 
of  two  years,  starved  in  prison  his  motlier,  whom 
John  had  left  as  regent ;  and  died  in  agonies  of 
horror  at  learning  the  ghastly  accident  that  had 
mingled  his  own  blood  with  that  of  his  brother  An- 
tigonus,  slain  by  his  order  in  the  palace-court. 

Alexander,  named  Jannaeus,  in  a  reign  of  five  and 
twenty  years,  was  mostly  occupied  in  petty  wars,  — 
generally  unsuccessful,  but  indefatigable  to  begin 
afresh.  He  signalized  himself  in  successive  revolts 
of  his  people,  first  by  the  barbarous  slaughter  of 
six  thousand,  then  by  a  civil  war  of  some  six  years, 
which  cost  ten  thousand  lives,  and  finally  by  cruci- 
fying eight  hundred,  whose  wives  and  children  were 
slaughtered  before  their  eyes  as  they  hung  in  death- 
agonies  upon  the  cross.  The  people  were  so  incensed 
against  him,  that  they  not  only  pelted  him  with  cit- 
rons in  the  street,  insulting  him  with  opprobrious 
names,  but  the  insurgents  gloried  in  the  tortures  that 
revenged  their  enmity,  and  the  only  terms  of  peace 
they  offered  were  that  the  tyrant  should  kill  himself. 
A  restless,  dissolute,  ambitious  man,  called  the  Thra- 
cian  for  his  barbarities,  his  rule  abhorred  except  for 

DaugMer  of  Hyrcanus,  —  Alexandra  (married  to  Alexander,  executed 
by  Herod). 

7.  Children  of  Alexander  and  Alexandra,  —  Mariamne  (wife  of  Herod) 
and  Aristobulus  (both  put  to  death  by  Herod). 

8.  Sons  of  Herod  and  Mariamne,  —  Alexander  and  Aristobulus  (both 
put  to  death  by  Herod). 

9.  Son  of  Aristobulus,  —  Herod  Agrippa,  who  dies  at  Caesarea. 
(Acts  xii.  23.) 

10.  Son  of  Herod  Agrippa,  —  King  Agrippa,  by  whose  death  (A.  D. 
100)  the  family  becomes  extinct.  His  sisters  were  Bernice  and  Dru- 
silla  (the  wife  of  Felix). 


332  THE  MACCABEES. 

the  comparative  mercy  he  showed  in  the  cities  he  had 
conquered,  he  died  before  the  age  of  fifty,  having 
done  the  one  service  of  confirming  the  Jewish  power 
upon  the  soil  of  Palestine. 

Alexandra,  his  widow,  by  the  aid  of  the  more 
popular  party  of  the  Pharisees,  ruled  nine  years 
longer,  without  failing  either  of  the  good  will  or 
contentment  of  the  people,  troubled  only  by  the  re- 
bellion of  her  younger  son,  and  died  just  after  Herod 
the  Great  was  born,  —  a  man  destined  to  be  witness 
and  agent  of  even  greater  changes  than  had  yet  be- 
fallen the  state  of  Israel. 

It  was  just  after  the  death  of  Alexandra  that  family 
dissensions  grew  into  a  civil  war,  which  was  not  ended 
until  Herod,  by  Roman  favour,  had  confirmed  his 
power  on  the  ruins  of  every  rival.  The  two  sons  of 
Alexander  were  Hyrcanus  and  Aristobulus.  Hyr- 
canus,  feeble  and  irresolute,  was  not  reluctant  to 
divide  the  dignity,  by  accepting  the  peaceable  honours 
of  the  priesthood,  and  giving  up  the  cares  of  power, 
with  the  weight  of  it,  to  his  abler  brother.  Bat 
when  an  old  quarrel  was  revived,  by  some  measures 
taken  to  punish  those  concerned  in  the  massacres  of 
Alexander,  the  struggle  grew  so  violent  that  Antipa- 
ter  (or  Antipas)  the  Idumaean,  father  of  Herod,  a 
bold  and  able  officer  of  Alexander,  easily  persuaded 
Hyrcanus  to  put  himself  in  his  hands  as  rival  king. 

This  was  the  occasion  that  brought  the  irresistible 
Roman  power  to  bear  practically  on  the  affairs  of 
Judaea.  Hyrcanus  had  fled  to  Petra,  where  he  won 
the  alliance  of  an  Arab  chief,  and  commenced  an 
assault  on  Jerusalem.     In  this  assault  the  city  was 


JERUSALEM  TAKEN  BY  POMPEY.  333 

SO  fiercely  divided  that  a  holy  man,  Onias,  was  stoned 
because  he  would  not  pray  for  the  ruin  of  either 
party;  and  when  the  besieged  were  in  distress  for 
want  of  victims  to  the  sacrifice,  the  besiegers,  prom- 
ising to  gratify  their  religious  scruple,  sent  them 
swine,  which  were  drawn  up  in  baskets  to  the  city 
walls,  and  then  dashed  down  in  horror,  amid  the 
scofis  and  jeers  of  the  pagan  troop.*  But  Pompey, 
the  great  and  favourite  general  of  the  Roman  Sen- 
ate, was  now  returning  from  the  East  in  the  full 
splendour  of  his  conquest  of  Mithridates,  and  held 
his  military  court  at  Damascus.  His  general,  Scau- 
rus,  ordered  the  hostilities  of  the  Jews  to  cease,  sent 
back  the  troop  of  Arabs,  and  summoned  both  com- 
petitors to  plead  before  Pompey  himself.  They  came, 
each  with  rich  gifts  ;  among  them,  from  Aristobulus, 
a  golden  ^dne,  valued  at  five  hundred  talents,  wrought 
with  wonderful  art,  exciting  the  amazement  of  the 
Romans  at  the  wealth  and  skill  of  the  obscure  prov- 
ince. Aristobulus,  resenting  the  arbitration,  pro- 
ceeded to  fortify  himself  again  in  Jerusalem.  But 
the  city  was  quickly  reduced  by  Pompey,  the  Roman 
works  of  siege  being  unmolested  on  the  Sabbath, 
and  Judaea  lay  at  the  mercy  of  its  offended  allies. 
(B.  C.  63.) 

Pompey,  though  insatiable  of  glory,  was,  by  the 

*  According  to  a  Jewish  story,  Hyrcanus  furnished  the  regular  vic- 
tims to  his  brother  at  a  fixed  price,  until  some  Greek  in  his  camp  con- 
vinced him  that  the  city  was  impregnable  so  long  as  the  sacrifices  were 
duly  fulfilled,  and  he  was  induced  to  send  a  hog  in  place  of  a  ram, 
whereat  all  the  land  of  Judiea  trembled ;  whence  the  pious  proverb, 
confounding  in  one  curse  those  who  hoist  swine  on  windlasses  with 
those  who  teach  their  sons  the  wisdom  of  the  Greeks. 


334  THE  MACCABEES. 

standard  of  antiquity,  both  enlightened  and  merciful. 
His  curiosity  was  stayed  by  no  Jewish  scruple  from 
penetrating  as  far  as  the  secret  shrine  of  the  temple, 
which  had  been  violated  before  him  by  no  Pagan; 
and  in  this  sacrilege  Jewish  superstition  saw  the  rea- 
son of  his  speedy  fall,  and  felt  a  sort  of  vindictive 
triumph  when,  fifteen  years  later,  his  corpse  was  cast 
out,  headless  and  dishonoured,  on  the  Egyptian  shore. 
But,  more  lenient  than  any  other  invader,  he  now 
showed  himself  peaceable  and  friendly.  Judaea  had 
only  to  surrender  power  as  the  price  of  peace.  He 
quieted  the  factions  by  which  the  country  was  mo- 
lested, repaired  the  ruins  of  temple  and  city,  and  left 
untouched  the  sacred  treasure ;  only  extending  the 
protectorate  of  Rome  over  the  divided  state,  levying 
a  fixed  tribute  to  the  Roman  treasury,  and  incor- 
porating Judaea,  as  part  of  the  province  of  Syria, 
within  the  widening  bounds  of  the  Republic.  Many 
Jewish  captives  were  carried  to  Rome,  where  they 
afterwards  obtained  civil  rights,  and  became  an  im- 
portant part  of  the  population.  The  boundaries  of 
Palestine  were  narrowed,  and  the  system  of  ruling 
and  taxing  the  land  by  districts  still  further  cramped 
the  power  of  Jerusalem.  The  Roman  arm  kept  down 
the  rising  insurrections  among  the  chafing  popula- 
tion. Aristobulus,  and  his  sons  Alexander  and  An- 
tigonus,  after  long  disputing  the  dominion,  were  at 
length  taken  and  put  to  death.  A  forced  neutrality 
was  kept  among  the  various  factions,  and  —  except 
in  such  acts  as  the  wanton  pillage  of  the  temple  by 
Crassus,  who  carried  off*,  it  is  said,  not  less  than  ten 
thousand  talents  —  the  foreign  yoke  was  less  disas- 
trous than  the  native  anarchy. 


HEROD   THE   GREAT.  335 

Under  the  powerful  protection  of  Rome  the  real 
authority  came  altogether  into  the  hands  of  Antipa- 
ter,  while  the  shadow  of  the  regal  dignity  remained 
yet  forty  years  with  the  incapable  heir  of  the  last 
native  Jewish  dynasty.  Antipater  was  a  popular  and 
able  governor ;  and  when  the  great  Julius  passed, 
after  Pompey's  death,  through  Syria  to  his  conquest 
of  Egypt,  he  won  by  his  prompt  and  valiant  aid  un- 
usual favour  from  the  Dictator,  who  made  him  a  Ro- 
man citizen  and  Procurator  of  Judaea.  He  rebuilt 
the  wall  which  Pompey  had  thrown  down,  restored 
quiet  once  more  to  the  country,  and  established  his 
two  sons  as  local  governors,  Phasael  at  Jerusalem 
and  Herod  in  Galilee. 

The  worst  consequence  of  so  many  years  of  vio- 
lence was  now  seen  in  troops  of  outlaws  and  bandits, 
who  hid  themselves  in  mountain  glens  and  caverns, 
lived  by  plunder,  and  kept  the  land  in  perpetual 
alarm.  It  was  in  suppressing  them  that  Herod,  a 
young  man  of  twenty-five,  gave  the  first  proof  of  that 
marked  administrative  ability  which  worthily  won 
him  the  name  of  Great,  while  he  roused  a  jealousy 
among  the  leading  Jews  nearly  fatal  to  him  at  the 
very  threshold  of  his  career.  Galilee  was  overrun 
and  held  in  terror  by  a  bold  robber-chief,  Hezekiah, 
who,  after  long  holding  out  against  every  effort  to 
capture  him,  was  at  length  taken  by  Herod  and  im- 
mediately put  to  death,  with  all  his  troop.  But  the 
Sanhedrim,  or  great  Council  of  Seventy,  claimed  to  be 
the  only  tribunal  with  jurisdiction  of  life  and  death, 
and  Herod  was  put  on  capital  trial  before  them  for 
his  illegal  stretch  of  power.    His  youth  and  fame,  the 


336  THE  MACCABEES. 

troops  of  his  guard,  with  his  brilliant  equipment  as 
victorious  chief,  and  the  confessed  need  of  the  service 
he  had  done,  held  the  great  council  in  check  ;  and 
while  they  paused,  in  doubt  of  using  their  authority 
upon  so  formidable  a  subject,  the  seasonable  inter- 
vention of  Sextus  Caesar  brought  him  off  in  safety. 
He  escaped  at  night,  by  advice  of  Hyrcanus,  and 
submitted  himself  to  the  tribunal  of  Rome,  which 
was  too  politic  not  to  spare  its  ablest  Eastern  ally. 

From  this  time  forth  the  career  of  Herod  was  as 
uniformly  successful  as  it  was  wary  and  adventurous. 
Whether  by  politic  boldness,  or  the  persuasion  of  his 
eloquence,  or  by  his  personal  presence,  he  never  failed 
to  be  in  favour  with  the  dominant  party  in  the  long 
struggles  of  the  expiring  Republic.  By  the  party  of 
Caesar  he  was  made  general  of  the  Syrian  army ;  by 
Cassius,  one  of  the  governors  of  Syria,  which  gave  him 
power  to  avenge  his  father's  and  his  brother's  death  ; 
by  Antony,  tetrarch,  and  by  the  Roman  Senate,  king. 
When  Phasael  was  taken  prisoner  by  the  Parthians, 
and  Antigonus  was  master  of  Judaea,  he  escaped  with 
imminent  hazard  of  his  life,  and  was  once  hardly 
withheld  from  suicide  ;  then,  going  to  Rome  to  plead 
the  cause  of  his  wife's  young  brother  as  heir  of  both 
Asnionaean  houses,  Augustus  and  Antony  united  in 
conferring  the  dignity  on  him.  He  never  failed  to 
suppress  sedition,  rebellion,  or  hostile  intrigue.  His 
bribes  and  persuasion  made  him  a  fast  friend  in  An- 
tony, when  a  deputation  of  a  hundred  Jews  sought  to 
ruin  him  by  their  charges.  Afterward,  when  Cleo- 
patra, angry  at  his  rejection  of  her  flatteries,  was 
known  to  be  his  enemy,  and  eager  to  get  his  kingdom 


POPULAR  ACTS  OF  HEROD.  337 

for  her  own,  lie  went,  at  the  hazard  of  his  life,  and 
prevailed  with  Antony  over  the  blandishments  of  the 
Egyptian  queen  herself. 

The  favour  of  the  Jewish  people  he  gained  by  in- 
terceding with  the  Roman  commander,  who  won  him 
possession  of  Jerusalem,  not  to  desecrate  the  temple, 
or  leave  him  "  master  of  a  desert  instead  of  a  city," 
and  afterwards  by  restoring  to  them  their  temple  and 
worship  in  all  their  ancient  splendour.  He  freed  the 
land  from  desperate  bands  of  outlaws,  whom  he  slew  in 
their  dens,  letting  down  armed  men  in  chests  swung 
from  windlasses  above  ;  and  thus  made  even  the 
remoter  districts  comparatively  safe.  Unscrupulous 
and  implacable  where  his  own  jealousy  or  vengeance 
was  concerned,  he  knew  when  to  be  heroic  in  act  and 
daring,  when  to  be  merciful  and  generous  in  admin- 
istration. His  taxes  pressed  lightly  on  the  people  in 
comparison  with  the  weight  of  them  elsewhere  ;  so 
that,  to  reconcile  his  munificence  and  economy,  pop- 
ular report  gave  him  access  to  fabulous  treasures  said 
to  have  been  hidden  in  David's  sepulchre.  The 
splendour  of  his  royal  abodes,  the  restored  temple  at 
Jerusalem,  the  sumptuous  festivals  and  magnificent 
games,  the  new  city  Sebaste,  or  Augusta,  on  the  site 
of  Samaria,  the  strongly  defended  seaport  of  Joppa, 
the  marble  docks  and  palaces  of  Caesarea,  appealed 
powerfully  to  the  people's  religious  or  patriotic  pride, 
and  reconciled  them  for  a  time  to  the  hated  yoke  of 
Edom.  To  allay  the  suspicions  of  the  pious,  the  old 
temple  was  not  demolished  till  the  materials  were  all 
at  hand  for  the  new.  The  work  was  .put  in  charge 
of  priests,  trained  and  clad  as  masons  ;  not  the  king 

15  V 


338  THE  MACCABEES. 

himself  would  trespass  on  the  boundaries  of  the 
sacred  enclosure.* 

But  his  theatres  and  games,  his  spectacles  of  wild 
beasts  and  fights  of  gladiators,  were  a  heathenish  in- 
novation, "  opposite  to  the  Jewish  notions,"  causing 
no  small  alarm  and  resentment  among  the  people ; 
which  was  further  increased  by  his  lavish  gifts  to 
Gentile  cities  at  their  expense,  and  his  politic  erect- 
ing or  adorning  of  pagan  shrines.  His  flatterers 
claimed  for  him  that  he  was  of  Hebrew  stock,  born 
of  a  house  that  had  shared  the  first  captivity.  But 
in  the  popular  heart  these  things  proved  him  no  true 
Israelite.  His  name  represents  the  traditional  hate 
of  Edom  to  the  house  of  Jacob,  and  to  this  day  he  is 
execrated  as  the  man  who  did  more  than  all  to  betray 
his  nation  and  its  faith  to  heathenism. 

Up  to  the  moment  of  Antony's  overthrow,  Herod 
was  his  active  and  constant  ally  ;  and  was  only  pre- 
vented by  his  positive  orders,  to  keep  the  Arabs  in 
check  on  his  own  frontier,  from  staking  his  fortunes 
with  him  in  the  fatal  sea-fight  at  Actium.  When  the 
great  battle  of  empire  was  decided,  he  went  without 
hesitation  or  any  mark  of  fear  before  Augustus,  laid 
aside  his  diadem,  professed  freely  his  services  and 
attachment  to  Antony,  and  put  his  claim  to  favour 
on  the  ground  of  that  fidelity  he  had  shown  so  well 
against  him  who  was  now  master  of  his  fortune  and 
life.  Augustus  held  it  more  prudent  to  secure  the 
gratitude  than  the  ruin  of  so  sagacious  and  bold  a 

*  According  to  the  Jewish  tradition,  during  eighteen  months  while 
it  was  in  building,  tain  fell  only  at  night,  that  the  task  might  be  undis- 
turbed. 


HEROD  AND  AUGUSTUS.  339 

man.  ^Admiring  his  frank  courage,  he  not  only  re- 
stored to  Herod  his  regal  dignity,  but  added  to  his 
dominion,  making  him  free  also  of  tribute,  so  that 
he  had  almost  the  state  and  power  of  an  independ- 
ent prince.  He  was  held  by  Augustus,  says  Jose- 
phus,  second  in  love  and  honour  only  to  Agrippa, 
and  by  Agrippa  second  only  to  Augustus.  His 
skilful  intercession  procured  for  the  Jews  the  de- 
gree of  privilege  which  gave  them  afterwards  so 
much  importance  among  the  inhabitants  of  Rome. 
His  politic  humanity  saved  numbers  of  them  at  his 
private  cost  from  starvation,  after  the  great  disas- 
ter of  the  earthquake  at  his  return  to  power.  And 
his  public  administration  shows,  throughout,  the 
most  consummate  skill  in  all  the  art's  and  meas- 
ures that  could  win  at  once  the  favour  of  his  masters 
and  his  subjects.  Eight  years  he  had  ruled  as  regent, 
or  as  most  powerful  among  the  chiefs  of  contending 
factions  ;  and  for  thirty-seven  years  he  reigned  under 
Augustus  as  undisputed  king. 

Such  was  the  career  of  splendid  and  uninterrupted 
success,  often  in  the  midst  of  the  greatest  personal 
peril,  which  won  for  Herod  the  title  of  Great,  —  a 
career  darkly  contrasted  by  his  terrible  domestic  his- 
tory. His  private  character  was  treacherous,  pas- 
sionate, and  cruel.  None  were  so  near  in  blood  or 
affection  as  to  be  safe  from  his  remorseless  jealousy. 
His  own  household  was  the  scene  of  his  guiltiest 
ambition  and  his  darkest  crimes.  The  queenly  Mari- 
amne,  granddaughter  of  both  Hyrcanus  and  Aristo- 
bulus,  unhappy  heiress  of  her  perished  kindred, — 
the  beautiful,  proud  woman  whose  hand  allied  his 


340  THE  MACCABEES. 

fortunes  with  the  last  royal  house  of  Judah,  —  fell  a 
victim  to  his  insane  suspicion,  or  else  his  jealous 
hatred  of  her  race,  at  the  very  moment  of  triumph 
that  crowned  his  long  career  of  perilous  adventure. 
He  had  married  her  during  the  hazards  of  his  early 
struggle  for  power,  —  perhaps  from  policy,  to  divide 
the  popular  regard  with  his  rival  Antigonus,  her  uncle, 
—  and  professed  a  passionate  love  to  her.  But  it  was 
a  passion  wayward  and  fierce,  like  the  wild  Edomite 
blood  that  ran  in  his  veins ;  and  was  turned  to  hate 
by  the  coldness  she  could  not  hide,  and  the  jealousy 
that  hunted  all  her  family  to  death.  Her  brother 
Aristobulus  he  had  made  high-priest  at  the  age  of 
seventeen,  —  a  youth  of  rare  gentleness,  grace,  and 
beauty,  and  of  no  dangerous  ambition,  —  and  within 
a  year  had  him  treacherously  drowned,  in  dread  of 
the  popular  affection  for  his  name.  The  old  Hyr- 
canus  himself,  degraded  from  his  priesthood,  shorn 
of  his  ears  by  his  nephew  Antigonus,  (which  made 
him  incapable  of  that  dignity,)  and  living  helpless 
among  the  female  intrigues  of  Herod's  court,  he 
found  occasion  to  put  to  death  just  at  the  moment 
when  it  was  convenient  to  him  to  clear  his  ground 
of  every  rival,  as  he  went  to  put  his  destiny  in  the 
hands  of  Augustus. 

Mariamne  alone  remained  of  the  priestly  and  heroic 
line,  deprived  even  of  her  sons,  who  were  taken  from 
her  charge  by  Herod,  that  they  might  be  watched  by 
his  spies  and  bred  in  Roman  ways.  Twice,  when  his 
fortune  and  life  were  hazarded  in  his  intricate  game 
of  ambition,  he  had  left  orders,  that  in  case  he  failed 
she  should  be  at  once  put  to  death,  —  from  jealous 


HEROD  AND  MARIAMNE.  341 

love,  as  the  historian  pretends,  lest  they  should  be 
parted  even  in  the  grave.  Each  time  the  secret  order 
was  betrayed  to  her,  and  made  her  excuse  for  the 
coldness  of  her  welcome  and  her  answer  to  his  lavish 
professions  of  affection ;  and  each  time  the  officer 
who  guarded  her — once,  Herod's  own  uncle  —  paid 
with  his  life  for  the  indiscretion.  His  sister  Salome, 
a  woman  no  less  skilful  in  her  plots  than  bitter  in 
her  animosities,  still  urged  him  on  by  false  charges 
and  suspicions,  till,  "  entangled  between  hate  and 
love,"  in  a  sudden  tempest  of  passion,  he  command- 
ed that  Mariamne  should  be  beheaded,  on  an  idle 
pretence  that  she  had  sought  to  poison  him.  Her 
womanly  honour  and  queenly  dignity  were  too  proud 
and  stainless  to  suffer  the  naming  of  any  baser  charge. 
So  perished  the  last  princess  of  the  royal  house  of 
Judah,  at  the  age  of  twenty-five,  alone  of  all  her 
kindred,  forsaken  and  reproached  at  last  even  by 
her  own  mother,  who  had  tempted  her  in  vain  to 
fly  from  the  doomed  and  guilty  house.  In  her 
death  the  last  pure  Hebrew  blood  of  the  Maccabees 
was  shed,  and  the  last  bond  of  true  loyalty  was  sev- 
ered that  might  have  united  king  and  people.  De- 
ploring the  fatal  crime  too  late,  with  bitter  and  tem- 
pestuous remorse,  Herod  built  for  her  monument 
a  tower  of  stainless  white  marble,  that  made  one  of 
the  strong  defences  of  Jerusalem. 

An  avenging  Destiny  pursued  the  house  of  Herod. 
His  father  had  died  by  poison,  at  the  hands  of  a  man 
whose  life  he  had  just  preserved.  One  brother  per- 
ished in  captivity  ;  one  was  slain  in  battle  ;  a  third, 
whom  he  had  banished  in  a  fit  of  rage,  and  then  la- 


342  THE  MACCABEES. 

merited  bitterly  when  he  died,  he  found  was  ah-eady 
conspiring  to  give  him  poison.  His  household  was 
distracted  with  miserable  female  intrigues  and  fatal 
quarrels.  In  his  own  sister  and  his  wife's  mother, 
Alexandra,  met  the  deadliest  antipathies  of  race  and 
creed.  Suspicion  and  treachery,  insane  jealousies 
and  false  charges,  —  such  that  among  his  own  kin- 
dred he  could  certainly  know  neither  conspirators  nor 
friends,  —  were  the  dreadful  judgment  that  followed 
this  career  of  distempered  passion  and  unscrupulous 
ambition.  Master  of  others'  lives,  he  never  felt  his 
own  was  safe.  Remorse  and  dread  provoked  him  to 
fresh  acts  of  violence.  The  entire  Sanhedrim,  all 
but  one  man,  he  slew  as  partisans  of  Antigonus.  At 
Jerusalem  he  entrenched  himself  in  the  impregnable 
tower  of  Antonia,  employed  bands  of  spies,  and 
walked  the  streets  in  disguise,  to  detect  the  lurking 
disaffection  among  his  subjects  ;  and  he  built  castles 
for  retreat  in  various  quarters,  garrisoned  and  fur- 
nished against  the  too  possible  contingency  of  civil 
war.  Of  his  ten  wives,  one  only  he  seemed  really 
capable  of  loving,  and  her  he  murdered.  Of  his 
many  children,  one  only,  the  brutal  and  bad  Anti- 
pater,  he  trusted  through  all  the  changing  and  bloody 
fortunes  of  his  house,  sacrificing  to  his  false  charge 
the  two  loyal  and  popular  sons  of  Mariamne ;  and 
him  he  found  guilty  of  conspiracy,  arrested  him  at 
landing  on  his  return  from  Augustus's  court,  and,  as 
his  last  act  of  royal  authority,  put  him  to  death  in 
prison,  —  the  only  unpitied  victim  of  his  rage.  The 
Gospel  narrative  echoes  the  tone  of  history  in  ascrib- 
ing to  his  suspicious  tyranny  the  massacre  of  every 


DEATH  OF  HEROD.  343 

infant  child  in  Bethlehem  ;  and  the  Jewish  story  was, 
that,  resolving  there  should  be  sincere  mourning  at 
his  death,  he  shut  up  in  prison  many  of  the  most 
eminent  men  of  the  nation,  with  the  ferocious  order, 
happily  disobeyed,  that  they  should  be  put  to  death 
as  soon  as  he  was  gone.  Consumed  by  passion, 
frenzy,  remorse,  and  the  most  horrible  distemper,  he 
closed,  at  the  age  of  seventy,  his  long,  brilliant,  most 
successful,  and  most  tragical  career. 

With  the  life  of  Herod  terminates  the  last  chapter 
in  the  history  of  Israel  as  an  independent  power. 
We  know  henceforth  only  the  petty  principalities  into 
which  Palestine  was  divided  by  the  Romans,  and  the 
dreary  story  of  that  oppression  which  ended  in  the 
utter  ruin  of  nation  and  city.  The  sole  interest 
which  remains  to  the  fallen  fortunes  of  Judah  is  as 
an  element  in  the  great  change  impending  in  the 
religious  destinies  of  mankind.  For  that  political 
position  which,  through  the  fortunes  of  the  Captivity, 
the  theocratic  colony,  the  desperate  struggle  of  the 
Maccabees,  and  the  glory  and  shame  of  the  later 
monarchy,  the  Jews  had  been  able  to  preserve, — 
surviving  so  many  all  but  fatal  shocks,  and  still 
bound  by  ties  of  ancient  reverence  and  heroic  memo- 
ries to  the  soil  of  Palestine,  —  had  not,  as  in  so  many 
other  cases,  saved  from  perishing  a  mere  form  or 
shell  of  national  existence.  But  as  the  city  of  Jeru- 
salem was  itself  a  fortress,  and  guarded  in  its  inte- 
rior citadel  the  sanctuary  and  sacr.ed  treasures  of  the 
Hebrew  faith,  so  the  nation  of  the  Jews  preserved  to 
the  destinies  and  uses  of  humanity  a  treasure  of  which 
only  the  experience  of  ages  should  declare  the  value. 


844  THE  MACCABEES. 

The  religious  enthusiasm  and  obstinate  fidelity  of 
the  Jews  themselves  shaped  their  own  interpretation 
of  their  mission  and  destiny  as  the  chosen  people. 
The  religious  hopes  of  each  great  Oriental  race  or 
creed  have  all,  more  or  less  vaguely,  taken  form  hi 
the  expectation  of  some  clear  revealing  of  God  in  hu- 
man life,  or  the  advent  of  some  glorified  Messenger.* 
This  expectation  in  the  time  of  the  earlier  monarchy 
had  found  strong  and  fervent  utterance  in  the  He- 
brew prophecy.  It  gave  Isaiah  the  assurance  of 
victory  in  the  great  impending  invasion  of  the  Assyr- 
ians. It  comforted  Jeremiah  at  the  gloomy  eve  of 
the  captivity  he  foresaw.  It  remained  with  the  exiles 
of  the  Euphrates,  and  made  the  most  sacred  pledge 
among  the  scattered  colonists  of  Judah.  At  every 
critical  season  of  the  later  history  it  reappeared ; 
now  in  the  vivid  visions  of  Daniel  in  time  of  terror 
and  disaster,  now  in  the  calmer  anticipation  of  sages 
and  pious  men  in  a  season  of  peace,  now  in  fanatic 
outbreak  such  as  preceded  the  nation's  final  over- 
throw, now  in  the  tone  of  reverence  paid  to-  a  discreet 
ruler,  as  Simon  the  brother  of  Judas  and  Simon  the 
Just,  now  in  the  base  flattery  with  which  a  later  party 
were  forward  to  welcome  the  yoke  and  court  the 
imperial  favour  of  Rome. 

It  is  this  that  furnishes  the  thread  of  interior  con- 
nection, and  gives  its  vital  significance  to  the  later 
Hebrew  history.  The  prophecy  of  ages  cannot  but 
work  towards  its  own  better  interpretation  and  com- 
pleter fulfilment.  The  culmination  of  the  Roman 
power,  its  almost  boundless  empire  and  almost  uii- 

*  Sec  SchoU,  "Die  Messias-Sagen  des  Morgenlandes." 


PEEPARATIONS  OF  THE  GOSPEL.        345 

broken  peace,  the  new  and  near  relations  by  which 
Judaea  found  itself  drawn  towards  the  culture,  enter- 
prise, and  custo-ms  of  other  nations,  its  helpless  posi- 
tion in  the  arms  of  the  great  dominion,  nay,  that  very 
sceptic  and  destructive  process  in  which  the  Grecian 
intellect,  preying  upon  itself,  made  more  sensible  the 
want  of  a  living  and  universal  faith,  —  all  were  so 
many  stages  of  the  preparation  that  led  mankind  to 
welcome  a  world-wide  rendering  of  the  Hebrew  hope, 
and  from  the  interior  life  of  that  ancient  religious 
polity  evolved  the  germ  of  a  divine  revelation  to  all 
ages. 

This  final  office,  yet  held  in  reserve  to  the  race 
whose  fortunes  had  been  conducted  through  such 
vicissitude,  makes  the  single  remaining  point  to  be 
regarded  in  the  Hebrew  history.  But  meanwhile 
another  course  of  preparation  for  it  has  been  going 
on,  by  the  intimate  contact  and  blending  of  the  mmd 
of  East  and  West, — the  interpretation  of  Jewish  faith 
in  the  light  of  Grecian  philosophy.  No  single  ele- 
ment can  effect  the  novel  consummation.  The  relig- 
ious thought  of  humanity  had  had  its  nurture  in  the 
porch  and  groves  of  Greece  as  well  as  among  the  hills 
of  Judah.  And  the  later  richer  chapter  of  man's 
spiritual  history  might  not  be  unfolded  but  by  bring- 
ing together,  in  one  living  whole,  all  \he  separate 
results  of  so  large  and  various  a  culture. 


15* 


XI.    THE  ALEXANDRIANS. 

THE  three  centuries  before  the  Christian  era  —  in- 
cluded in  the  preceding  review  —  are  memorable 
in  the  history  of  opinion,  as  defining  almost  the 
precise  boundaries  of  the  second  or  middle  period 
of  Grecian  philosophy.  In  this  regard  they  offer,  be- 
sides, a  very  important  chapter  in  the  development 
of  Jewish  thought,  and  an  indispensable  prepara- 
tion for  the  new  Religion  that  was  to  spring  from 
the  seed  yet  abiding  in  the  Hebrew  faith. 

A  glance,  however  slight,  at  the  courses  of  specula- 
tion hitherto  seems  essential  to  a  right  understanding 
of  the  period  at  which  we  are  now  arrived. 

Without  concealing  the  deceptive  character  of 
such  generalizations,  to  those  who  accept  them  in- 
stead of  the  facts  they  are  meant  to  interpret,  we 
may  divide  the  whole  history  of  Grecian  philosophy 
into  three  pretty  nearly  equal  periods.  In  the  first 
it  was  mainly  a  theory  of  Nature  and  Thought,  and 
was  summed  up  in  its  completest  form  by  Aristotle, 
the  teacher  of  Alexander.  In  the  second  it  was 
mainly  a  theory  of  Life  taught  by  the  contending 
schools  of  Epicurus  and  Zeno,  —  the  purely  specula- 
tive element  degenerating  into  an  impotent  scepti- 
cism.    In    the    third   it  was    mainly   a  theory  of 


ORIGIN  OF   GRECIAN  PHILOSOPHY.  347 

Religion  as  taught  by  the  later  Platonists,.  springing 
from  the  same  soil  with  the  prevalent  form  of  Chris- 
tian doctrine,  and  for  three  centuries  disputing  with 
it  the  intellectual  sovereignty  of  the  empire.  This 
last  belongs  to  the  era  of  Christian  history,  and  need 
not  be  considered  here.  It  is  with  the  second  period 
that  we  are  chiefly  concerned. 

The  history  of  free  thought  among  the  Greeks 
begins  as  early  as  that  of  free  institutions.  Tliales, 
the  "  father  of  philosophy,"  was  of  the  same  age 
with  Solon.  (B.  C.  600.)  Among  the  disasters  and 
troubles  that  befell  the  little  Ionic  league  of  states 
in  their  collision  with  the  Persian  monarchy,  he  took 
a  citizen's  share  in  the  public  defence,  and  his 
accurate  observation  of  nature  enabled  him  to  fore- 
stall popular  terror  by  predicting  an  eclipse.  Al- 
though, in  harmony  with  the  mind  of  the  age,  the 
universe,  as  he  regarded  it,  was  "  full  of  gods,"  he 
was  yet  sceptical  as  to  that  poetic  creed  which 
explained  the  groups  of  natural  phenomena  by  its 
mythic  genealogies ;  and  vaguely  but  boldly  he 
sketched  the  outline  of  a  philosophy  of  nature, 
which  made  the  point  of  departure  of  the  famous 
Ionic  school,  that  embraced  the  best  intellect  of 
Greece  down  to  the  time  of  Socrates.  Almost 
contemporary  with  his  protest,  Pythagoras  and 
Xenophanes  took  their  departure  from  the  dominant 
creed,  each  projecting  in  his  own  style  a  philosophy 
of  thought.  And  thus,  in  the  sixth  century  before 
Christ,  among  the  earher  movements  of  the  little 
Hellenic  states  and  colonies,  began  the  independent 
growth  of  speculation  which  accompanied  the  event- 


348  THE   ALEXANDRIANS. 

ful  course,  of  Grecian  political  history  in  a  parallel 
but  separate  channel  of  its  own. 

The  three  original  streams,  scientific,  mystic,  and 
dialectic,  found  their  way  to  Athens  in  the  time 
of  her  short-lived  empire,  and  were  there  blended 
into  one.  Anaxagoras,  the  illustrious  friend  of  Peri- 
cles, first  indicated  the  great  division-line  among  the 
objects  of  philosophy,  by  marking  the  antithesis 
of  Mind  and  Matter.  Though  the  irritable  sus- 
picion of  the  popular  faith  denounced  these  novel- 
ties, —  though  his  own  life  was  hardly  spared,  and 
his  pupil,  Socrates,  perished  through  the  resentment 
roused  by  his  unsparing  attack  of  prevailing  fallacies 
and  superstitions,  —  yet  peace  was  easily  made  with 
the  forces  of  a  decayed  mythology.  Plato  followed 
out  unmolested,  in  his  master's  name,  the  minute 
and  weary  analysis  of  his  famous  Dialogues,  and 
draped  the  baldness  of  his  speculations  in  the  fanci- 
ful garb  of  myths  that  charmed  the  Attic  taste. 
Aristotle,  who  came  as  a  proud  and  sensitive  boy  to 
learn  in  the  school  of  tliis  splendid  aristocrat  of 
thought,  speedily  made  himself  master  of  all  that 
Greek  science  and  speculation  had  accomplished 
hitherto ;  he  extended  prodigiously  both  the  bound- 
aries of  observation  and  the  scope  of  mental  analy- 
sis ;  and  projected  a  "  Philosophy  of  the  Empire  " 
which  the  ancient  world  was  never  able  to  outgrow, 
and  which  holds  its  mastery  in  modern  schools,  in 
some  regards,  even  to  this  day. 

Such  is  a  slight  outline  of  what  was  effected  in 
rather  less  than  three  centuries,  in  the  creative  pe- 
riod of  Grecian  philosophy.     So  far  as  a  true  theory 


THE   SECOND  PERIOD.  349 

of  Nature  and  Thought  is  concerned,  Aristotle  speaks 
for  us  the  last  word  of  antiquity.  The  history  of 
pure  speculation  after  his  day  shows  a  steady  declen- 
sion into  the  vanity  of  barren  jargoning  and  the 
helplessness  of  an  intellectual  scepticism.  The  spe- 
cial sciences  of  Mathematics  and  Astronomy  were 
cultivated,  indeed,  with  brilliant  success,  in  the  later 
schools  of  Greece.  Euclid  and  Hipparchus  rank 
highest  in  a  long  list  of  eminent  names  that  adorn 
the  Institute  established  by  Ptolemy  in  his  splendid 
capital.  But,  besides  this  success  in  the  analytic  and 
inductive  sciences,  the  most  marked  intellectual  fea- 
ture of  the  second  period  was  seen  in  the  philosophy 
of  Life  held  by  the  sects  of  Epicureans  and  Stoics. 
As  these  are  both  strongly  characteristic  of  the  age 
we  are  now  considering,  —  its  moral  as  well  as  its 
intellectual  estate,  —  it  will  be  well  to  set  them  forth 
a  little  more  in  detail.*  They  are  of  the  more  inter- 
est to  us,  since  the  first  conflict  of  intellectual  Pagan- 
ism with  living  Christianity  took  place  when  Paul  the 
Apostle  being  at  Athens,  "  certain  philosophers  of 
the  Epicureans  and  of  the  Stoics  encountered  him." 

When  the  search  for  Truth  seemed  to  have  been 
exhausted,  and  there  remained  only  the  barren  in- 
dustry of  analysis  and  erudition,  the  search  next 
instituted  was  for  the  "  sovereign  Good,"  or  the  right 
practical  philosophy  of  Life.  The  first  consistent 
answer  was  given  by  Epicurus,  whose  age  falls  im- 
mediately after  that  of  Aristotle.  The  sovereign 
good,  he  said,  is  Happiness.  Pleasure  is  good :  we 
need  not  go  behind  it  to  ask  why  or  how.     Virtue  is 

*  Taken  partly  from  Ritter's  excellent  account. 


350  THE  ALEXANDRIANS. 

good :  for  it  adds  to  our  sum  total  of  enjoyment. 
Quietness  and  peace  are  good :  for  they  put  us  out 
of  the  way  of  pain.  So  liberal  is  Nature,  and  so 
clearly  does  she  exhibit  this  as  the  true  end  of  life, 
that  once  remove  the  positive  cause  of  pain  and  she 
finds  the  enjoyment  of  her  own  accord.  With  a 
bodily  system  in  good  repair,  we  may  be  passive 
recipients  of  her  prodigal  benevolence. 

Not  that  we  have  the  Author  of  Nature  in  especial 
to  thank  for  this,  he  said.  We  do  not  deny  that  there 
is  such  a  Being ;  we  will  not  cross  swords  with  the 
popular  belief  as  to  so  remote  a  matter  of  mere  spec- 
ulation. But  we  cannot  suppose  that  the  Divine 
Being  (one  or  many)  can  interest  himself  in  the 
cares  and  destinies  of  men.  He  is  apart  and  at 
peace  with  himself,  —  a  type  of  that  blissful  uncon- 
cern which  the  wise  man  will  seek  to  attain  on  earth. 
But  the  popular  fear  of  God  as  an  Avenger  of  guilt 
and  Judge  of  men,  or  of  the  Future  as  a  scene  of 
retribution  possibly  capricious  or  vindictive,  dis- 
turbs and  harasses  us.  By  all  means  the  fears  of 
Superstition  should  be  done  away.  Did  not  Aga- 
memnon, said  Lucretius,  sacrifice  his  own  daughter 
to  the  Deity  that  withheld  the  prospering  breeze  ? 

"  Tantum  Relligio  potuit  suadere  malorum  !  " 

The  soul  is  but  the  finer  essence  or  tissue  of  the 
bodily  organization:  it  dissolves  with  the  dissolving 
frame,  or  fleets  away  like  mist.*  Why  should  we 
fear  Death  ?  If  it  is  annihilation,  we  shall  not  feel 
it ;  if  a  new  mode  of  life,  then  it  is  not  death.     "  If 

*  See  Lucretius,  passim. 


EPICUREANISM.  351 

we  are,  it  is  not ;  if  it  is,  we  are  not ;  when  it  comes 
we  feel  it  not,  for  it  is  the  end  of  all  feeling ;  and 
what  can  give  no  pain  when  it  is  here  should  give  no 
dread  when  it  is  far  off." 

Meanwhile,  it  is  a  temperate  and  serene  enjoyment 
the  wise  man  will  seek  ;  not  extravagant,  violent,  or 
injurious  to  others.  The  pleasures  of  the  mind  are 
far  above  those  of  sense.  The  wise  man  is  superior 
to  the  shocks  of  fortune :  in  lingering  sickness  there 
is  more  to  enjoy  than  suffer ;  in  torture  even,  mem- 
ory and  hope  may  continue  undisturbed.  Luxury  is 
not  essential :  there  are  limits  to  all  things ;  pleasure 
must  be  economized ;  those  most  enjoy  luxury  who 
have  least  need  of  it.  Why  should  a  man  quarrel 
with  circumstances,  or  stand  in  fear  of  laws  or  men 
or  destiny  ?  In  himself  is  the  real  source  of  happi- 
ness. His  moral  liberty  has  just  this  field  of  exer- 
cise :  he  can  adapt  himself  to  the  state  of  things ;  he 
can  acquiesce.  Let  him  make  the  best  of  his  lot. 
Let  him  seek  the  solace  of  private  friendship :  "  a 
true  friend  can  trust  a  true  friend ; "  and  in  philos- 
ophy he  will  find  "  an  activity  that  procures  a  happy 
life." 

This  pleasant  and  plausible  style  of  ethics  reflects 
well  the  average  mind  of  an  age  when  the  state  was 
crumbling  and  the  ancient  civilization  verging  to- 
wards decay ;  when  foreign  conquerors  allowed  no 
hope  to  political  ambition;  when  the  sacredness  of 
antique  Art  was  degraded,  so  as  to  minister  to  per- 
sonal luxury  instead  of  public  reverence  ;  when  the 
circle  of  ancient  knowledge  and  faith  was  run,  and  a 
pedantic  scepticism  had  taken  hold  of  the  mind  of 


352  THE  ALEXANDRIANS. 

studious  men ;  when  there  was  neither  moral  sym- 
pathy to  comprehend  the  noble  life  and  death  of 
Socrates,  nor  intellectual  grasp  to  retain  the  stores 
of  thought  treasured  by  his  great  disciples  ;  when 
there  was  not  as  yet  developed  a  religion  of  Life,  that 
should  gather  up  what  was  noblest  of  that  thought, 
and  make  of  it  a  doctrine  of  practical  and  vital  good- 
ness. In  such  a  period  of  pause,  of  moral  degener- 
acy and  intellectual  decline,  Epicurus  lived  out,  on 
the  whole,  worthily  and  well  the  precepts  of  his 
code,  —  harmless,  prudent,  reasonable,  praiseworthy 
in  comparison  with  the  dull  or  ferocious  level  of  a 
vulgar  life  ;  but  destitute  of  faith  or  living  energy, 
"  having  no  hope,  and  without  God  in  the  world." 
He  taught  it  from  boyhood  up,  and  lived  by  it  to  old 
age.  It  gave  him  such  resource  and  solace  as  he 
craved.  He  gathered  about  him  attached  and  affec- 
tionate friends.  His  school  was  a  proverb  for  good- 
will and  harmony ;  his  writings  a  great  bulk  of  easy, 
good-humoured  exposition  of  his  very  superficial 
views  of  nature,  mind,  and  morals,  plain  to  under- 
stand, provoking  no  debate  ;  and  he  died  at  upwards 
of  seventy,  bequeathing  his  pleasant  gardens  as  the 
school  to  teach  his  cheerful  theory  of  life  to  all  com- 
ing time.  But  the  school  dishonoured  the  master. 
The  inevitable  tendency  became  a  notorious  fact. 
The  garden  of  Epicurus  is  better  known  to  us  by  its 
stern  Miltonic  designation  of  "  Epicurus'  sty." 

It  was  from  his  contemporary,  Zeno,  that  the  an- 
tagonistic school  of  Stoics,  or  the  Porch,  began.  He 
was  a  man  of  feeble  health,  austere  manners,  severe 
and  melancholy  temper,  who  sought  consolation  in 


STOIC  DOCTRINE.  353 

philosophy  for  the  utter  wreck  of  his  fortune  at  an 
early  age.  His  stern,  practical  aim  was  to  set  tlie 
mind  above  the  risk  and  change  of  life,  upon  the  im- 
pregnable heights  of  Virtue.  The  two  schools  wero 
developed  side  by  side,  and  kept  pace  with  one 
another  through  all  the  succeeding  generations  of 
pagan  thought.  The  statement  of  Epicurus,  that 
happiness  is  the  whole  aim  of  life,  including  virtue, 
was  met  by  Zeno  with  the  nobler  counter  statement, 
that  virtue  is  the  whole  aim  of  life,  including  happi- 
ness. It  was  a  severe  and  masculine  morality  he 
taught.  Not  love  or  pity,  any  more  than  fear  or 
enjoyment,  did  he  suffer  to  be  a  wise  man's  motive, 
—  no  love  but  that  high,  unimpassioned  love  to  be 
bestowed  alike  on  friends  and  enemies.  Virtue,  he 
said,  is  inexorable  law,  —  law  as  strict  as  that  fol- 
lowed bj^  the  stars  in  their  courses,  or  in  the  growth 
of  plants.  Duty  is  the  distinguishing  and  noble 
instinct  of  man.  It  is  a  sentiment  primitive,  inex- 
plicable, inalienable,  as  much  as  the  instinct  of  hun- 
ger or  the  care  of  its  young  in  every  creature.  We 
cannot  go  behind  it ;  we  may  not  go  against  it.  All 
wisdom  he  would  reduce  to  virtue,  all  philosopliy 
to  a  practical  and  religious  common  sense. 

The  great  thought  of  God  as  universal  Law  lay  at 
the  bottom  of  his  creed  of  ethics  ;  of  God  as  the  life- 
giving  *  and  indwelling  Word  of  his  system  of  physics. 
Man's  happiness,  he  said,  is  in  the  free  unfolding  of 
his  mental  life,  the  primitive  instinct  of  right  being 
developed  according  to  reason  and  conscience.  There 
is  a  crisis  in  the  interior  life,  —  a  moment  when  the 

*    aTTepfUlTlKOS. 


354  THE   ALEXANDRIANS. 

dim  reason  awakes  and  asserts  its  supremacy,  and 
thenceforward  there  can  be  no  neutrahty.  A  moral 
antithesis,  inherent  in  the  very  nature  of  things, 
brings  the  strict  alternative.  A  man  chooses  right 
or  wrong,  honour  or  baseness,  good  or  ill ;  and  the 
whole  of  his  life  afterwards  is  but  the  acting  out  of 
the  choice  of  that  moment.  Hence,  morally  speak- 
ing, all  men  are  ranked  in  two  great  classes.  There 
is  no  middle  ground.  All  virtues  are  on  one  level ; 
all  vices  and  crimes  on  another  level.  No  allowance 
for  human  weakness,  none  for  the  pressure  of  cir- 
cumstance. The  one  problem  of  life  is  to  make  the 
divine  Reason  paramount  and  supreme.  "  Lead 
me,"  said  Cleanthes,  "where  I  am  commanded  of 
thee  to  go,  that  I  may  follow  without  backwardness  ; 
but  though,  becoming  base,  I  should  not  consent, 
yet  none  the  less  shall  I  follow  thee."  "He  is  a 
bad  soldier,"  said  Seneca,  "  who  follows  his  general 
reluctantly  :  let  us  receive  our  leader's  commands 
with  cheerfulness,  and  execute  them  with  alacrity; 
and  never  desert  the  path  marked  out  for  us  because 
perplexed  with  difficulties.  He  has  a  truly  great  mind 
who  surrenders  himself  wholly  to  God."  "  God  " — 
so  runs  the  Stoic  doctrine  —  "  is  the  eternal  Reason 
that  governs  the  universe  and  pervades  all  things  ; 
the  beneficent  Providence  that  taketh  care  of  all  as 
well  as  of  each ;  the  foundation  of  that  natural  Law 
which  commands  the  right  and  forbids  the  wrong. 
He  punishes  the  violation  of  the  law,  and  rewards 
the  right ;  he  is  perfect  in  himself,  and  possessed  of 
perfect  blessedness." 
The  practical  doctrine  of  the  Porch  was  equally 


STOIC  ETHICS.  355 

austere  and  high.  "  The  duty  we  owe  to  others  is  to 
love  all,  even  our  enemies.  A  good  man  will  love  his 
neighbour  from  his  heart,  and  take  pleasure  in  pro- 
tecting and  serving  him.  He  will  not  think  himself 
born  for  himself  alone,  but  for  the  common  good  of  all ; 
and  will  be  good  to  all  according  to  his  opportunity. 
The  consciousness  of  well-doing  is  ample  reward  for 
him  ;  though  he  have  no  witness  of  his  deeds,  and  re- 
ceive no  applause  or  recompense.  He  will  relieve  the 
sick,  aid  the  shipwrecked,  protect  the  stranger,  or  sup- 
ply the  hungry  with  food  ;  but  with  a  cheerful  counte- 
nance, disdaining  all  sorrow  arising  from  sympathy, 
as  well  as  that  from  personal  suffering.  The  poor, 
weak,  and  slaves  are  his  special  charge.  The  wise 
man  alone  is  free,  or  rich,  or  of  a  sound  mind ;  in 
truth,  the  only  sovereign." 

The  noblest  phrases  of  Christian  ethics  are  bor- 
rowed from  the  Stoics.  St.  Paul  before  the  Areopa- 
gus quotes  one  of  their  religious  hymns.  There  is 
no  exceeding  their  maxims  of  severe,  uncompromising 
virtue.  They  taught  them  earnestly  too.  Cleanthes 
toiled  by  night  in  drawing  water  and  'grinding  meal, 
that  he  might  be  at  liberty  to  teach  by  day.  Carne- 
ades  seized  the  occasion  of  an  embassy  to  E-ome  to 
plant  the  doctrine  in  what  would  be  the  capital  of  the 
world.  Seneca  insisted  on  its  precepts  in  the  court 
of  Nero,  in  language  which,  for  earnest  morality  and 
intelligent  piety,  is  rarely  excelled :  and  it  has  been 
a  favourite  opinion  with  many,  and  not  unlikely,  that 
he  was  secretly  a  disciple  of  the  Apostle  Paul. 

Such,  in  its  nobler  aspect,  was  the  character  of 
that  celebrated  protest  against  the   degeneracy  of 


356  THE  ALEXANDRIANS. 

ancient  thought  and  life.  But  as  a  means  of  really 
escaping  from  the  degradation  it  deplored,  it  was 
lame  and  ineffectual.  It  had  no  visible  centre  and 
rallying-point  of  faith  ;  no  organization  of  the  senti- 
nient  of  virtue.  It  had  no  word  of  mercy  to  those  "  that 
labour  and  are  heavy  laden  ;"  no  deliverance  to  offer 
men  from  the  base  condition  it  assumed  them  to  have 
freely  chosen.  Manual  toil  it  scorned  as  slavish,  ex- 
cept what  was  barely  needful  to  maintain  the  higher 
life  ;  all  care  for  health  as  effeminate  and  base.  AU 
tender  charities  it  forgot  or  crowded  out  of  sight.  It 
laid  no  broad  hold  upon  the  sympathies  of  men,  but 
remained  the  exclusive  possession  of  a  few,  —  aristo- 
crats and  monopolists  of  virtue.  With  these,  the 
boastful  love  of  all  the  world,  friends  and  enemies 
alike,  would  most  likely  dwindle  to  a  sterile  philan- 
thropism.  It  demanded  an  impossible  flight  to  re- 
gions of  airy  excellence,  to  which  it  pointed  the  way, 
but  furnished  no  motive  force. 

With  many  it  thus  became  a  vain  theory  and  bar- 
ren declamation,  —  the  mere  heroics  and  rhodomon- 
tade  of  virtue.*  There  was  no  attempt  to  reconcile 
the  empty  and  vague  ideal  with  obstinate  fact. 
Hence  the  theory  itself  became  arbitrary  and  capri- 
cious. All  the  extravagances  which  Antinomian 
fanatics  have  permitted  to  the  Elect  the  Stoics  said 
could  belong  harmlessly  to  their  perfect  man.  For 
him,  no  need  of  the  distinction  of  virtues  and  crimes. 
In  his  soul  was  the  transmuting  principle  that  ren- 
dered all  alike  holy :  he  could  innocently  do  what  by 
the  common  measure  would  be  gross  wickedness, — 

*  As  in  Cicero's  hollow  "  Paradoxes." 


DEFECT  OF   STOICISM.  —  PYRRHONISM.  357 

an  assertion  harmless  only  because  impracticable, 
since  none  could  hope  to  reach  that  state.  Such  a 
theory  was  but  an  impotent  and  vain  protest  against 
an  aggressive  moral  scepticism,  a  frail  barrier  against 
a  tide  of  dissoluteness  and  sophistry.  It  grew  to  a 
stern  and  deepening  gloom  in  the  sincere,  to  empty 
rhetoric  in  more  artificial  and  superficial  minds.  It 
is  a  dreary  commentary  on  this  ethically  noblest  phi- 
losophy of  the  pagan  world,  that  the  founder  of  it 
himself,  and  three  whose  names  stand  high  as  any 
among  his  followers,  died  by  their  own  hands.*  Con- 
tempt of  death  was  the  final  refuge  of  Stoic  virtue,  — 
not  that  which  strengthens  a  man  to  endure  life  to 
the  uttermost,  and  keep  to  the  last  the  post  which 
Providence  has  assigned,  but  that  which  overleaps 
unshrinking  the  awful  brink,  to  brave  the  unsolved 
secret  of  Eternity. 

For  about  three  hundred  years  the  two  philosophic 
creeds,  or  theories  of  life,  were  on  trial  before  the 
world.  Whatever  we  have  found  plausible  in  one  or 
noble  in  the  other,  they  lent  but  a  treacherous  founda- 
tion to  any  positive  system  of  truth  or  practical  style 
of  morals.  The  speculative  philosophy,  meanwhile, 
characteristic  of  the  period,  is  that  of  a  complete  and 
absolute  Scepticism,  —  sometimes  daintily  eclectic,  as 
with  the  "  New  Academy "  of  dilettante  Platonists, 
sometimes  bald  and  unqualified  in  its  dogmas  of  un- 
certainty. Its  creed  was,  that  "  Nothing  can  be  cer- 
tainly known,  either  by  sensation  or  reflection."     Its 

*  Zeno,  Cleanthes,  Cato,  Bratus.  "  The  wise  man  lives  while  he 
ought,  not  while  he  can,"  says  Seneca.  (Epist.  Ixx.,  which  argues  at 
length  the  pros  and  cons  of  suicide.) 


358  THE  ALEXANDRIANS.- 

maxim  was,  "  I  must  assert  nothing,  not  even  this, 
that  I  assert  nothing  ;  "  and  that  "  to  every  assertion 
one  may  be  opposed  of  equal  weight,  as  it  seems  to 
me."  This  phrase  must  qualify  every  proposition. 
All  science  is  unsettled  by  a  universal  If.  The  cor- 
responding practical  doctrine  was  absolute  indiffer- 
entism,  and  universal  compromise.  Common  sense 
revenged  itself  on  the  founder  of  this  insolent  and 
mocking  creed  by  inventing  tales  of  his  absurd  con- 
sistency with  it  in  practice  ;  saying  that  his  friends 
had  to  rescue  him  from  being  run  over  by  what  he 
would  regard  as  phantom-carriages,  and  to  snatch 
him  from  plunging  over  the  brink  of  precipices  which 
his  theory  ignored.  But  thought  was  too  far  divorced 
from  life  to  seek  or  demand  consistency.  Pyrrho 
himself  was  a  priest  of  the  faith  he  undermined ;  and 
lived  in  honour  and  esteem  to  a  great  old  age. 

Indeed,  scepticism  at  this  period  was  not  so  much 
a  fault  of  intellect  or  will,  as  the  symptom  of  a  chronic 
mental  malady.  The  harvest  of  ancient  metaphysics 
was  reaped,  and  yielded  no  bread-corn  to  the  hungry 
mind. 

"  The  intellectual  power  through  words  and  things 
Went  sounding  on,  —  a  dim  and  perilous  way." 

The  studious  toil  of  centuries  had  availed  to  lay  no 
impregnable  foundation  of  truth.  Natural  science 
was  still  in  its  early  rudiments.  It  could  neither 
grasp  the  universe  as  a  whole,  nor  check  the  vagaries 
of  speculation,  nor  suggest  to  the  philosopher  a  con- 
sistent theory  of  life  on  the  basis  of  unalterable  fact. 
The  conception  of  law  was  but  an  impotent  general- 
ization, a  sterile  name.     The  ancient  belief  in  the 


SCEPTICISM  AND   MYSTICISM.  359 

sovereign  sway  of  gods  had  become  the  doctrine  of  a 
fatal  and  blind  Destiny.*  A  vague  religious  instinct 
protested  vainly  against  the  blank  of  unbelief.  As 
the  fortunes  of  the  world  were  drawn  more  and  more 
within  the  embrace  of  one  gigantic  Empire,  all  the 
more  deeply  was  felt  the  craving  for  a  unity  of  belief, 
for  one  philosophic  and  religious  creed,  to  define  the 
faith  of  the  future.  The  general  growth  of  mind, 
and  the  loss  of  enterprise  and  stimulus  in  the  pur- 
suits of  life,  made  the  religious  want  more  deeply 
felt  just  when  it  was  farthest  from  being  satisfied. 
Metaphysical  speculation  had  done  its  utmost ;  but, 
spell-bound  as  it  were,  and  held  by  a  sort  of  fatality, 
it  but  plunged  into  deeper  darkness  at  every  step. 
It  became  at  best  a  dreamy  transcendentalism,  a  bar- 
ren sublimation  of  thought,  hair-splitting  dialectics 
about  the  divine  nature  and  spiritual  things,  —  which 
Oriental  mysticism  tended  more  and  more  to  sep- 
arate from  the  natural  world  as  impure  and  base. 
The  great  problem  of  existence,  human  and  divine, 
was  solved  by  limitless  negation  ;  and  the  human 
mind  confessed  itself  incompetent  to  meet  with  a  res- 
olute affirmative  the  simplest  question  as  to  morals 
or  belief  or  destiny. 

From  Scepticism  so  radical  and  entire  the  natural 
reaction  at  once,  and  the  readiest  escape,  is  Mysti- 
cism,—  its  "  positive  phase,"  as  it  has  been  called. f 
This  cuts  the  knot  of  negation,  and  assumes  the  point 
of  view  of  faith.     A  speculative  answer  to  the  great 

*  This  alteration  in  the  old  mythology  is  best  set  forth  by  Comte, 
"Philosophic  Positive,"  Vol.  V.  pp.  277-279. 
t  Zeller. 


360  THE  ALEXANDRIANS. 

Doubt  that  now  invaded  the  ancient  mind  might  well 
be  despaired  of :  a  religious  answer  alone  could  meet 
the  malady  at  the  root.  Philosophy  had  already  set 
the  Deity  at  a  distance  from  the  system  of  things  as 
conceived  by  the  intellect ;  and  the  conscience,  moved 
by  the  degradation  of  the  time,  took  pleasure  in  mag- 
nifying this  distance, — insisting  on  man's  inability 
to  know  Him  without  a  mediator,  or  maligning  the 
world  of  matter  which  His  hand  had  wrought.  A  posi- 
tive and  vital  faith  once  given,  to  blend  with  the  in- 
tellectual material  so  richly  stored,  one  way  of  refuge 
seemed  open  from  the  doom  to  which  the  most  culti- 
vated intellect  of  the  age  was  hastening.  Such  was 
the  motive  by  which  the  ever  busy  and  inquiring  sa- 
gacity of  the  Greeks  was  drawn  towards  those  Oriental 
systems  of  belief,  which  at  this  precise  point  of  time 
offered  themselves  in  Alexandria.  A  chapter  of  ex- 
traordinary interest  is  thus  opened  in  the  history  of 
the  human  mind.  Two  separate  courses  of  religious 
speculation  present  themselves,  —  one,  developed  into 
the  New  Platonism,  which  was  an  euthanasy  of  the 
expiring  beliefs  of  paganism ;  the  other  taking  the 
direction  which  we  have  now  to  follow. 

When  Alexander  the  Great  founded  his  stately 
capital  on  the  Delta,  it  was  with  the  political  and 
commercial  view  of  making  it  the  imperial  city  of 
the  world.  Ptolemy,  who  in  the  fourfold  division 
received  this  southern  portion  of  his  empire,  sought 
further  to  make  it  "  the  metropolis  of  science,  the 
asylum  of  letters,  and  sanctuary  of  light."  Alexan- 
dria became  "  the  great  Hellenic  city,  centre  of  the 
commerce  of  three  continents,  the  common  shelter 


ALEXANDRIA.  361 

of  letters  and  the  arts,"  —  "the  crown  of  all  cities." 
When  Physco  passed  his  decree  of  exile,  says  Athe- 
naeus,  he  "filled  cities  and  islands  with  grammarians, 
philosophers,  geometers,  musicians,  painters,  teachers, 
doctors,  and  many  other  professions."  From  Alex- 
andria, it  was  said,  are  all  teachers  among  Greeks 
and  barbarians.  Every  population  and  every  faith 
was  free  to  share  its  ample  and  cosmopolitan  domain. 
Both  Grecian  and  Egyptian  gods  had  been  honoured 
with  temples  by  its  founder.  Oriental  mysticism  and 
Western  culture  met  in  the  equal  hospitality  of  its 
schools.*  As  the  political  power  of  Greece  declined, 
her  intellectual  eminence  continued  undisputed  here  ; 
and  long  after  Christianity  ruled  the  world  from  the 
imperial  throne  of  Byzantium,  the  stately  temple  of 
Serapis  remained,  as  the  last  citadel  of  the  perishing 
culture  and  creed  of  Paganism. 

In  this  splendid  Grecian  capital,  that  spread  its 
broad  crescent  on  the  Mediterranean  shore,  the  an- 
cient faith  of  Israel  came  once  more  in  contact  with 
remote  and  strange  elements  ;  and  here,  as  in  Baby- 
lon, while  retaining  its  own  strong  vitality,  it  lost 
something  of  its  intrinsic  character,  and  adopted  the 
tone  of  foreign  thought.  In  the  saying  of  the  Jews, 
their  nation  was  dispersed  in  three  "  Captivities." 
Babylon,  Palestine,  and  Egypt  were  three  several 
centres  or  homes,  having  each  its  spiritual  chief,  its 
own  style  of  culture,  and  a  development  of  the  relig- 
ious tradition  peculiar  to  itself.  While  the  Babylon- 
ian Jews  were  busied  with  the  eccentric  frivolities 
afterwards  embodied  in  the  Talmud,  while  those  of 

*  See  Simon,  also  Matter,  "  Histoire  de  I'jfccole  d'Alexandrie." 

la 


362  THE  ALEXANDRIANS. 

Palestine  were  defending  tneir  hard-won  independ- 
ence, or  nourishing  political  ambitions  and  dreams 
of  vengeance,  the  Alexandrians  were  eager  to  enjoy 
the  advantage  of  the  great  metropolis  of  Western 
thought.  While  with  the  first  the  Hebrew  Messianic 
hope  was  overwrought  with  fables  of  a  fantastic  Par- 
adise, —  while  with  the  second  it  became  the  goad 
of  enterprises  as  vindictive  and  fierce  as  they  were 
fruitless,  —  with  the  last  it  was  blended  with  the  no- 
bler speculations,  and  interpreted  in  the  philosophic 
phrases  of  the  Grecian  schools.  Loyal  as  ever  in  their 
national  belief,  they  clung  to  the  persuasion  that  theirs 
was  from  of  old  the  one  chosen  people  and  interpreter 
of  God  to  the  whole  earth.  Their  sacred  books  they 
held  to  be  the  peculiar  and  direct  gift  of  God.  How- 
ever alien  from  the  old  Hebrew  faith  their  new  style 
of  interpretation,  they  followed  without  suspicion  of 
heresy  the  fashion  of  the  day,  in  their  metaphysical 
refinements  and  allegorical  fancies.  Heretics  and 
aliens  by  the  jealous  judgment  of  those  who  ruled  the 
synagogue  at  Jerusalem  and  in  the  estimate  of  mod- 
ern Jews,  they  doubtless  regarded  themselves  as  the 
true  and  orthodox  expounders  of  the  Old  Testament 
creed.  To  the  angry  horror  of  those  who  held  that 
there  could  be  only  one  centre  of  worship,  and  that 
Zion  was  the  true  religious  home  of  every  pious 
Hebrew,  these  latitudinarian  dissenters  embraced  in 
good  faith  the  regal  hospitality  tendered  them.  To 
the  number  of  at  least  a  million,  they  became  natu- 
ralized in  the  soil  of  Egypt.  They  had  their  own 
temple  at  Leontopolis,  —  a  deserted  shrine  of  Bubas- 
tis,  granted  them,  not  without  a  heathen's  jest  at  the* 


THE  SEPTUAGINT.  363 

transfer,  by  Ptolemy.  They  had  their  own  Sanhedrim 
of  seventy  "  elders,"  for  whom  "  seventy  golden  arm- 
chairs ''  were  set  in  the  great  synagogue  at  Alexan- 
dria ;  they  had  their  independent  religious  literature, 
and  their  own  Greek  version  of  the  sacred  Scriptures. 
This  last  —  the  celebrated  version  of  the  Seventy 
—  was  their  peculiar  religious  treasure,  and  was 
looked  on  through  a  halo  of  marvellous  tradition, 
that  made  it  of  equal  sanctity  and  authority  with  the 
Hebrew  original,  which  indeed  few  of  them  could 
read.*  Its  preparation,  it  was  said,  was  intrusted  to 
seventy  learned  men,  —  or  seventy-two,  six  to  repre- 
sent each  tribe,  —  who  were  sent  in  sacred  embassy 
from  Jerusalem  at  the  king's  express  command.f  To 
save  noise  and  interruption  in  their  task,  they  were 
placed  on  a  little  island,  where  they  might  be  in  pres- 
ence of  "  thbse  elements  only  whose  creation  they 
should  describe,"  and  where  nothing  might  be  heard 
save  the  solemn  murmur  of  the  sea;  and  here  each 
in  a  separate  room,  or  groups  of  seven  each,  prepared 
a  copy  of  the  entire  Scripture,  which  was  completed 
in  seventy-two  days.  And  so  manifest  was  the  Divine 
hand  in  this  work,  that  when  the  seventy  copies  came 
to  be  compared,  not  a  word  or  syllable  was  found  to 
vary.J 

*  Philo,  it  is  well  known,  argues  on  the  significance  of  Hebrew  names 
from  Greek  roots. 

t  About  B.  C.  280. 

X  Among  the  characteristic  variations  of  the  LXX.  from  the  Hebrew 
text  are  the  following :  The  substitution  of  "  Lord  "  for  "  Jehovah  " 
throughout,  generally  followed  in  the  modem  versions  ;  "  God  perceived 
that  he  had  made  man,  and  considered"  (Gen.  vi.  6) ;  "I  appeared  to 
Abraham,  etc.,  as  their  God"  (Ex.  vi.  3) ;  "The  elders  saw  the  place 
where  the  God  of  Israel  stood  "  (Ex.  xxiv.  10) ;  '*  He  set  the  bounds 


364  THE  ALEXANDRIANS. 

Thus  early  were  the  numerous  colonists  from 
Judaea  naturalized  in  Egypt,  making  it  the  adopted 
home  of  their  religion,  long  before  the  time  when 
the  Jews  of  Palestine  were  engaged  in  their  life-and- 
death  struggle  with  Antiochus.  In  the  main,  though 
at  first  forced  colonists,  they  were  treated  with 
favour  and  indulgence.  They  occupied  two  of  the 
five  municipal  districts  of  Alexandria,  and  in  Cyrene 
made  the  predominant  part  of  the  population.  It 
was  a  saying,  that  "  he  who  has  not  seen  the  syna- 
gogue at  Alexandria  has  not  seen  that  which  is  most 
beautiful."  So  vast  was  the  size  of  it,  that  "  during 
service  it  was  necessary  to  appoint  a  special  officer, 
who,  by  the  raising  and  waving  of  a  banner,  should 
at  the  proper  time  give  a  signal  to  the  congregation 
to  respond." 

With  that  cosmopolitan  feeling  which  in  exiles 
often  takes  the  place  of  a  narrower  patriotism,  the 
Jews  of  Alexandria  craved  intercourse  and  instruc- 
tion in  the  literary  and  philosophic  schools  of  the 
Greeks.  The  celebrated  Museum,  or  Institute,  found- 
ed  by   the   enlightened  Ptolemy   Philadelphus,  did 

of  the  nations  according  to  the  number  of  his  angels  "  (Deut.  xxxii.  8), 
— these  being  supposed  to  be  seventy,  and  the  Law  proclaimed  on 
Sinai  being  divided  into  as  many  voices  and  tongues  ;  "  From  his  hand 
went  forth  angels  with  him  "  (Deut.  xxxiii.  2) ;  "The  Gods  of  the  na- 
tions are  Dcemons"  (Ps.  xcvi.  5),  —  a  favourite  argument  of  the  Alex- 
andrians, in  their  interpreting  between  Greek  and  Jewish  thought.  Of 
twelve  theophanies  of  the  Old  Testament,  eight  are  so  translated  as  to 
disguise  the  visible  appearance  of  Jehovah,  while  the  rest  may  be  taken 
as  vision  or  allegory.  The  Messiah,  as  a  pre-existing  divine  power, 
(Dan.  vii.  13,)  is  easily  made  the  Revealer  of  the  Old  Testament.  See 
Gfrorer  ("Philo,"  etc.)  and  Dahne.  Respecting  the  value  of  this  ver- 
sion to  the  Grecian  public,  see  an  Essay  of  De  Quincey  on  the  "  Word 
signifying  Eternal." 


PHILOSOPHY   AND   ALLEGORY.  365 

not  admit  them  on  equal  terms  to  its  privileges  ;  but 
excepting  this,  there  was  no  bar  to  the  most  liberal 
interchange  of  thought.  The  Greeks,  following  the 
fashion  of  the  day,  eagerly  sought  among  Oriental 
races  signs  of  that  sacred  tradition,  a  purer  religious 
light,  whose  home  to  their  fancy  lay  in  the  far  East ; 
and  the  Jews  on  their  part  were  both  delighted  and 
astonished  at  the  novel  speculations  of  the  Greeks  as 
to  the  divine  order  of  the  universe,  the  Kosmos,  and 
the  inscrutable  nature  of  the  Deity.  The  infinite 
and  unchangeable  One,  the  perfect  Good,  the  essential 
Reason,  the  divine  and  universal  Life,  they  were  not 
slow  to  identify  with  the  Jehovah  revealed  in  their 
own  sacred  books.  They  readily  seized  on  the  tra- 
ditions current  among  the  philosophical  sects,  to 
prove  that  Pythagoras  and  Plato,  who  were  said 
to  borrow  their  doctrine  from  the  East,  must  have 
found  it  in  the  Hebrew  Scriptures,  and  that  Moses 
was  the  true  father  of  Grecian  philosophy. 

The  Old  Testament,  especially  the  Pentateuch, 
was  interpreted  into  an  enormous  scheme  of  sym- 
bolism, or  allegory,  "  the  natural  fruit  of  a  men- 
tal revolution."  The  "  Word  of  Jehovah,"  which 
in  the  Hebrew  writings  expresses,  with  a  vague 
sublimity,  the  active  agency  of  the  Creator,  was 
identified  with  the  indwelling  or  "  seminal "  reason 
of  the  Stoics,*  —  in  whose  stern  protest  against 
effeminacy  the  Jews  found  many  points  of  attrac- 
tion and  sympathy,  as  formerly  in  the  austere  ritual 

*  "  The  Stoics  teach  an  essential,  the  Alexandrian  Jews  and  Neo- 
Platonists  only  a  dynamic  immanence  of  God  in  the  world."  —  Zeller, 
"  Philosophie  der  Griechen,"  Vol.  III.  p.  493. 


366  THE  ALEXANDKIANS. 

of  the  Persians.  This  divine  Reason,  or  living  Word 
of  God,  was  spoken  of  as  God's  own  Son,  and  as 
Father  or  Creator  of  the  Universe.*  The  Jews  were 
a  nation  of  priests,  agents,  and  interpreters  of  the  Di- 
vine Word,  intercessors  with  the  Almighty  in  behalf 
of  the  creation.!  The  high-priest  in  his  prayers 
interceded  for  the  elements  ;  and  his  sacred  robes 
were  a  symbol  of  the  visible  universe.  J  The  Divine 
Word,  they  held,  is  a  perpetual  Mediator,  through 
whom  the  world  is  continually  reconciled  to  God. 
It  is  "  the  first  of  angels,  the  Archangel  of  many 
names ; "  the  first-born  Son  of  God ;  the  atoning 
Mediator,  or  High-priest,  in  behalf  of  mankind ; 
present  in  the  creation  from  the  beginning,  but 
first  revealed  to  the  Jews  through  Moses. §  Adopt- 
ing the  doctrine  of  the  Platonists,  they  further 
identified  the  Divine  Word  with  the  realm  of  eternal 
Ideas,  existing  from  the  beginning  in  the  mind  of 
God ;  and  hence,  as  his  executive  Agent  in  the  work 
of  creation,  —  the  three  advocates  with  God  being 
the  Divine  mercy,  the  piety  of  the  Fathers,  and 
repentance. 

Such  is  the  somewhat  vague  and  undiscriminated 
circle  of  theological  ideas  got  by  blending  the  con- 

*  The  personal  view  of  the  Logos  was  earlier  in  Alexandria,  says 
Gfrorer,  than  the  philosophical ;  and  the  term  was  introduced  as  the 
masculine  equivalent  of  the  feminine  Sophia,  or  Wisdom.  (Compare 
Prov.  viii.  30.) 

t  Dorner,  "  Lehre  von  der  Person  Christi,"  Vol.  I.,  Introduction. 

t  Wisdom  of  Solomon  xviii.  24.  So  Philo  says  :  "  The  high-priest 
is  the  Word,  which  putteth  on  the  world  as  a  garment."  —  De  Profugis, 
p.  466  (Frankfort  folio  of  1691). 

§  Philo,  Quis  IIceres,p.  509  ;  and  Confusio  Linguarum,  p.  341. 


EARLIER  WRITERS.  —  WISDOM   OF   SOLOMON.       367 

ceptions  of  several  Grecian  schools,  especially  the 
Platonist  and  Stoic,  with  the  religious  language  of 
the  Old  Testament.  It  is  the  longing  for  a  universal 
religion,  expressed  in  the  terms  of  a  limited  and  pe- 
culiar creed.  It  is  a  style  of  thought  often  incon- 
sistent with  itself,  still  more  often  unintelligible  or 
incoherent  to  a  modern  mind ;  yet  highly  character- 
istic of  that  age,  and  indispensable  to  be  known  in 
studying,  not  only  the  "  preparations  of  the  Gospel," 
but  the  gradual  development  also  of  the  Christian 
doctrine  itself.* 

The  first  traces  of  this  blending  of  two  elements 
seemingly  so  incongruous  are  found  as  early  as  in 
the  Alexandrian  version  of  the  Seventy.  Of  Aris- 
tobulus  (B.  C.  150),  a  Jew  of  considerable  eminence, 
we  know  little  more  than  that  he  first  directly  as- 
serted the  Hebrew  origin  of  Greek  philosophy ;  and 
that  his  exposition  of  Homer  and  the  Orphic  poets, 
as  well  as  the  Old  Testament,  was  in  violent  con- 
formity with  this  idea.f  And  it  was  in  the  hands  of 
Aristeas,  a  little  later,  that  the  miracle  of  the  Septua- 
gint  came  into  its  present  and  popular  form. 

The  "  Wisdom  of  Solomon,"  an  apochryphal  book 
of  uncertain  date,  is  the  most  complete  and  interest- 
ing exhibition  of  this  colouring  of  Jewish  by  Grecian 
thought.     God  (to  quote  the  new  religious  phrase-. 

*  For  the  several  contributions  to  that  development,  Stoic,  Plato- 
nist, and  Jewish,  see  Vacherot,  "  Histoire  Critique  de  I'^fecole  d'Alex- 
andrie." 

t  See  Zeller  and  Gfrorer.  The  following  specimen  of  his  theology 
is  preserved  to  us  :  "  God  never  ceases  to  create ;  but  as  it  is  the 
nature  of  fire  to  burn  and  of  snow  to  be  cold,  so  of  God  to  create,  and 
much  more,  since  he  is  the  source  of  activity  to  all." 


368  THE  ALEXANDRIANS. 

ology)  is  "  the  lover  of  souls,  whose  incorruptible 
spirit  is  in  all  things."  His  spirit  "  filleth  the  world, 
and  that  which  containeth  all  things  hath  knowledge 
of  the  voice."  His  "  almighty  Word  leaped  down 
from  heaven,  out  of  his  royal  throne,  as  a  fierce  man 
of  war."  Wisdom  is  "  a  breath  of  the  power  of  God, 
a  pure  influence  flowing  from  the  glory  of  the  Al- 
mighty ;  in  all  ages,  entering  into  holy  souls,  she 
maketh  them  friends  of  God,  and  prophets."  "  God 
created  man  to  be  immortal,  and  made  him  to  be  an 

image  of  his  own  eternity The  souls  of  the 

righteous  are  in  the  hand  of  God,  and  there  shall 
no  torment  touch  them  ;  for  though  they  be  punished 
in  the  sight  of  men,  yet  is  their  hope  full  of  immor- 
tality." "  The  thoughts  of  mortal  men  are  miserable, 
and  their  devices  but  uncertain ;  for  the.  corruptible 
body  presseth  down  the  soul,  and  the  earthly  taber- 
nacle weigheth  down  the  mind  that  museth  on 
many  things ; "  but  "  incorruption  maketh  us  near 
to  God."* 

This  style  of  thought  shows  already  traces  of  an 
asceticism  quite  foreign  to  the  true  Hebrew  doctrine, 
and  most  nearly  allied  whether  to  the  practices  of  the 
far  East,  or  to  the  sentiments  of  the  Stoics.  It  is  as 
if  the  language  of  their  protest  were  taken  in  good 
faith,  and  made  the  practical  rule  of  life  among  some 
sects  that  now  appear  on  this  Egyptian  soil,  so  fertile 
in  all  extravagances  of  religious  doctrine.  Of  these, 
the  most  noted  are  the  Tlierapeutce^  a  body  of  Jewish 
monks,  —  men  sharing  the  religious  and  mental  cul- 

*  Wisdom  of  Solomon,  xi.  26 ;  xii.  1  ;  i.  7 ;  xviii.  15 ;  vii.  25,  27 ; 
ii.  23  ;  iii.  1,  4  ;  ix.  14,  15  ;  vi.  19. 


THERAPEUT^.  369 

ture  of  the  time,  but  devoted  to  the  most  rigid  aus- 
terity of  celibate  and  monastic  life.*  In  each  dwelling 
was  a  private  chapel  or  "  monastery."  Their  relig- 
ious exercises  were  frequent ;  their  Sabbath  scrupu- 
lously kept.  Their  only  common  worship  was  a 
banquet  and  sacred  dance  on  the  seventh  day,  —  a 
dramatic  commemoration  of  the  Passover  and  pas- 
sage of  the  Red  Sea.f  Their  food  was  of  bread,  salt, 
and  herbs,  their  drink  only  water,  like  the  later 
Christian  monks,  with  frequent  fasts  of  three  or 
even  six  days.  Slavery  among  them  was  held  to 
be  "  against  nature,"  and  strictly  forbidden.  Their 
name,  which  signifies  Healers,  or  attendants  on  the 
sick,  denotes  either  their  religious  charities,  or  their 
office  of  healing  the  diseases  of  the  soul.  The  body 
they  regarded  as  a  prison,  and  the  ground  of  all 
evil  they  held  to  reside  in  Matter.  A  visionary  and 
impassioned  ecstasy  was  their  way  of  access  to  divine 
energies,  and  their  method  of  prophetic  inspiration. 
Hence  their  maceration  and  austerities ;  and  hence 
the  fervours  of  their  mystical  piety.  They  carried  to 
its  greatest  extent  the  new  doctrine  of  mediation 
through  the  divine  Spirit,  or  living  Word  of  God, 
and  of  the  ministration  of  angels,  whose  names  they 
said  were  revealed  as  a  sacred  mystery.  Their  doc- 
trine of  mediating  spirits  exposed  them  to  the  charge 
of  magical  ceremonies ;  and  many  of  their  opinions 
and  practices  they  shared  with  the  sect  of  pagan 
Mystics,  who  claimed  to  be  the  new  disciples  of 
Pythagoras. 

One  eminent  writer  —  so  eminent  that  he  is  often. 

*  Philo,  De  Vita  Contemplativa.  t  Gfrorer, 

16*  X 


370  THE  ALEXANDRIANS. 

regarded  as  the  true  founder  of  the  New-Platonic 
school,  that  obstinate  rival  of  the  Christian  Church  — 
represents  to  us  in  its  completest  proportions  the 
blending  of  Jewish  and  Grecian  thought  that  took 
place  gradually  during  the  three  centuries  before 
Christ.  Philo  the  Jew  was  of  a  priestly  family,  rich 
and  honourable,  and  was  thoroughly  instructed  in 
the  religious  traditions  of  his  people.  His  birth  was 
we  know  not  how  many  years  before  that  of  Jesus,  — 
probably  as  many  as  twenty.  The  most  marked 
event  of  his  life  was  his  being  sent  at  the  head  of  an 
embassy  to  intercede  with  Caligula  (A.  D.  40)  in 
behalf  of  the  Jews,  then  suffering  under  a  cruel  and 
wanton  persecution  from  Flaccus,  the  governor  of 
Alexandria,  because  they  would  not  worship  the  em- 
peror as  a  God.  He  was  then  already  well  advanced 
in  years,  being  the  oldest  of  the  legation.  One  tradi- 
tion makes  him  acquainted  with  the  Apostle  Peter,  if 
not  his  convert,  as  if  to  account  for  his  extraordinary 
anticipation  of  Christian  forms  of  thought ;  but  the 
saying,  "  Plato  Philonizes,  or  else  Philo  Platonizes,'' 
gives,  no  doubt,  the  truer  story. 

In  his  voluminous  writings  are  found  all  the  vari- 
ous characteristics  and  opinions  which  have  been 
ascribed  to  the  Jewish  philosophy  of  the  period, —  not 
set  forth  in  an  orderly  manner,  but  floating  at  ran- 
dom in  an  interminable  flood  of  paraphrase  and  com- 
ment of  the  Pentateuch.  One  is  at  a  loss  to  know 
how  far  he  accepts  the  Hebrew  tradition  as  fact,  or 
how  far  he  uses  it  as  a  veil  to  his  own  fond  fancies. 
As  with  the  Church  Fathers,  much  of  his  exposition 
is  in  the  form  of  homily,  and  reads  like  oral  dis- 


PHILO   THE  JEW.  371 

courses,  not  always  wanting  in  pulpit  eloquence,  tak- 
ing some  sacred  legend  for  the  text.  The  narrative 
is  treated  with  the  utmost  freedom,  to  square  it  with 
the  prevalent  style  of  religious  speculation.  "  None 
but  a  fool  would  think  the  world  was  made  in  six 
days,  or  in  any  given  period  of  time  ; "  since  it  is  the 
Divine  nature  to  act  always,  and  creation  is  eternal. 
Adam  is  the  intellectual  nature,  and  woman  is  formed 
from  the  necessity  of  joining  with  it  the  sensual  and 
material :  that  she  was  taken  literally  from  his  side, 
"  who  can  believe  it  ?  the  tale  is  mythical."  The  river 
of  Paradise  is  wisdom ;  which  being  "  parted  into  four 
heads"  becomes  the  four  cardinal  virtues.*  Cain 
and  Abel  are  rival  principles ;  and  since  evil  is  self- 
destructive,  it  follows  that  Cain  kills  himself,  not  his 
brother. 

The  patriarchs  are  living  intercessors  with  "  the 
God  of  the  living."  Abraham,  Isaac,  and  Jacob 
represent  three  styles  of  religious  illumination, — 
innate  knowledge,  culture,  and  practical  discipline. 
Again,  Abraham  is  intellect,  and  Sarah  virtue,  whose 
marriage  is  wisdom.  Again,  Abraham  routs  the 
banded  kings  and  delivers  his  allies,  —  that  is  to  say, 
the  five  senses  and  the  four  affections.  It  is  in  a 
phantom  shape,  not  a  real  body,  that  the  Word  (not 
Jehovah)  appears  to  him  in  Mamre.  His  migration 
is  emancipation  from  the  body,  and  is  attended  by 
angels  ;  "for  he  who  follows  God  necessarily  has  for 
his  attendants  those  Words  of  his  which  we  call 
angels."  His  offering  of  Isaac  is  the  sacrifice  of 
pleasure  or  delight,  which  belongs   to  God  alone. 

•    *  So  Josephus;  also  Augustine,  De  Civitate  Dei,  XIII.  21. 


372  THE  ALEXANDRIANS. 

His   change   of  name   was  from  "lofty  father,"  to 
"  elect  father  of  the  Voice.'' 

The  angels  of  the  sacred  books  are  equivalent  to 
the  Daemons  or  Heroes  of  the  Greek  mythology. 
Noah  is  the  same  as  Deucalion  ;  the  builders  of  Ba- 
bel are  compared  with  the  Titans  who  heaped  Pelion 
on  Ossa ;  and  the  fabled  Atlantis  finds  its  place  in 
the  exposition  of  Jewish  legend.  Moses  when  a  child 
refused  all  childish  sports  ;  and  while  at  the  court  of 
Pharaoh,  his  teachers  were  brought  "from  the  re- 
motest parts  of  Egypt  and  Greece."  The  burning 
bush  signifies  that  the  righteous  "  shall  not  perish 
by  the  fury  of  their  foes."  Not  God  himself,  but  his 
Word,  was  present  in  the  pillar  of  cloud  that  led  the 
desert  march.*  Moses  is  the  "  prophet  Word ;  " 
"Balaam  (the  empty  vulgar)  holds  discourse  with  his 
ass,  —  that  is,  the  brutish  way  of  life  that  every  fool 
rides  on."  The  high-priest  entering  the  sanctuary 
is  no  longer  a  man,  but  represents  "  the  Word,  which 
putteth  on  the  universe  as  a  garment."  And  of 
Manna,  "  what  is  sweeter  than  honey,  or  whiter  than 
snow  ?  that  bread  which  is  the  word  of  God."  f 
Such  are  specimens  of  this  novel  rendering  of  the 
Hebrew  books,  taken  at  random  from  the  wide  ex- 
panse of  Philo's  commentaries. 

Of  particular  doctrines  are  the  following :  — 
Of  God  and  his  Worship,  —  "  We  may  know  that 
God  is,  but  not  what  God  is."     The  divine  powers  or 

*  Compare  1  Cor.  x.  4. 

t  See  the  treatises,  De  Abrahamo,  De  Temulentia,  De  Migratione  Abra- 
hami,  De  Confusione  Linguarum,  De  Vita  Mosis^  pp.  509,  613,  Z>e  Ndbili- 
tate,  De  Profugis,  p.  466. 


PHILO.  —  OF   GOD  AND   HIS  WORSHIP.  373 

attributes  are  segments  of  Deity ;  the  names  "  Lord  " 
and  "  God  "  are  significant  of  might  and  goodness, 
whose  reconciler  is  the  Word.  This  is  Philo's  trin- 
ity. God  is  "  the  God  of  Abraham,"  etc.,  that  is,  the 
relative  for  the  absolute,  since  God  has  no  heed  of 
name.  "  God  governs  not  as  a  tyrant,  but  as  a  mild 
and  lawful  king,  whose  most  fit  name  is  Father." 
He  gives  blessings  to  the  evil  and  unthankful,  to 
stimulate  them  to  goodness.  Spirit  is  that  which  is 
breathed  into  the  soul  by  God.  To  receive  the  divin- 
ity, one  must  be  as  in  Corybaean  ecstasy,  as  a  child 
without  speech  or  consciousness.  "  The  mind  when 
it  purely  serves  God  is  not  human,  but  divine  ;  but 
when  it  turns  to  any  human  thing,  descending  from 
heaven,  rather  falling  upon  the  earth,  it  goes  forth, 
even  though  it  remain  in  the  body."  "  Nothing  so 
rouses  the  mind  to  liberty  as  to  become  a  fugitive  and 
suppliant  to  God."  "  What  should  be  true  sacrifice 
but  the  worship  of  a  pious  soul?  whose  homage  is 
everlasting,  written  on  tablets  before  God,  to  last  as 
long  as  sun  and  moon  and  universe."  The  only  fit 
sacrifices  are  "  those  of  the  soul  that  brings  as  its 
ofiering  mere  and  only  truth."  "  God  finds  no  wor- 
thier temple  than  the  mind."  * 

*  Philo,  De  Abrahamo,  De  Providentia,  Quod  Deterior  Potiori  invidet, 
p.  1 59,  De  Lege  AUegoricBj  Qiis  Rerum  Dimnarum  Hceres,  p.  492,  De 
Vita  Mosis,  De  Nobilitaie. 

Compare  Apollonius  of  Tyana  (quoted  by  Zeller,  Vol.  III.  p.  305) : 
"  Thus,  as  I  think,  should  one  render  the  most  fit  service  to  the  Di- 
vinity, and  thence  find  him  merciful  and  propitious,  and  thus  only :  if 
to  God  (of  whom  we  have  first  said  that  he  is  One,  apart  from  all, 
and  whom  it  is  needful  for  all  to  search  out),  he  neither  offer  sacrifice 
nor  kindle  fire  nor  have  recourse  to  anything  at  all  of  sensible  things  ; 


374  THE  ALEXANDRIANS. 

Of  the  Divine  Word.  —  God  having  determined 
to  make  the  world,  first  (as  the  builder  of  a  city) 
made  an  intellectual  image  or  model,  —  the  Logos  or 
Word,  which  is  the  intelligible  world  Qcoa^o^;  vorjjo^^^ 
idea  of  ideas,  and  image  of  God ;  mediator  among 
the  divine  attributes ;  "  helmsman  and  ruler  of  all 
things."  "  If  no  one  is  worthy  to  be  called  son  of 
God,  at  least  share  the  glory  of  the  Word."  "  To 
the  archangel  and  most  ancient  Word  the  Father,  who 
hath  begotten  all  things,  gave  the  choice  gift,  that, 
standing  as  Mediator,  he  should  judge  the  Maker's 
work.  He  is  Advocate  of  the  mortal  with  the  Eter- 
nal, an  Envoy  of  the  Ruler  to  his  subjects.  He  re- 
joices in  his  office,  and  fulfils  it,  saying,  I  am  come 
between  the  Lord  and  you,  being  neither  unborn  as 
God  nor  born  as  you,, but  midst  of  the  two  extremes, 
and  hostage  to  both,  —  with  the  Creator,  as  assurance 
that  he  will  never  wholly  destroy  or  forsake  his  off- 
spring ;  and  with  the  Creature,  as  a  pledge  that  the 
merciful  God  will  never  overlook  his  own  work.  For 
I  announce  peace  from  him  that  knoweth  how  to  put 
an  end  to  war, —  God  the  Guardian  of  peace."  * 

It  is  not  the  particular  opinions  he  held,  or  the 
fond  fancies  that  garnish  his  writings,  but  rather  the 

—  for  He  needs  nothing,  not  even  from  those  better  than  we;  nor  is 
there  a  plant  which  the  earth  puts  forth,  or  a  creature  which  the  air 
supports,  to  which  there  adheres  not  some  taint ;  —  but  uses  always 
towards  him  the  better  discourse  alone,  —  I  mean  not  that  which  passes 
through  the  lips,  but  from  the  fairest  of  beings  seeks  the  best  things  by 
what  is  fairest  in  us  ;  and  the  mind  requires  no  organs.  Thus  by  no 
means  should  we  offer  sacrifice  to  God,  who  is  great  and  above  all." 

*  Philo,  De  Cherubis,  p,  114,  De  Confus.  Ling.,  p.  341,  Quis  Rerum 
Divin.  Hares,  509. 


PHILO.  —  LOGOS   OR  WORD   OF   GOD.  375 

style  of  thought,  making  him  a  representative  of  his 
era,  and  preparing  the  way  for  later  schemes  of  Chris- 
tian doctrine,  that  gives  interest  and  value  to  Philo's 
speculations.  In  them  we  find,  not  clearly  or  consist- 
ently set  forth,  but  assumed  as  part  of  the  texture, 
that  doctrine  of  the  Divine  Word  so  remarkably  ex- 
panded afterwards  in  the  Alexandrian  theology.  It 
is  hardly  too  much  to  say,  that  in  the  various  treatises 
of  Philo  almost  every  cardinal  point  of  the  later 
school  of  Christian  dogmatics  is  clearly  anticipated  or 
reproduced  ;  at  least,  a  groundwork  is  prepared  for 
it  in  the  style  of  thought  and  language  which  they 
helped  to  make  familiar.  We  find  in  him  already 
the  Word  as  the  second  Divinity,*  the  first-born  Son, 
the  Image,  Messenger,  and  executive  Agent  (i/Tra/^^o?) 
of  God,  the  Light  of  the  world,  the  Advocate,  Media- 
tor, Intercessor,  Mediatorial  High-Priest,  the  Refuge 
and  Physician  of  souls,  Shepherd  of  the  flock,  Or- 
dainer  of  all  things,  Type  of  the  creation,!  Seal  of 
testimony,  Fountain  of  wisdom,  and  sinless  Saviour 
from  sin.f  We  find  the  doctrine  of  Ransom  or  Re- 
demption, of  spiritual  blessedness,  of  repentance  and 
faith  as  the  source  of  good  works  and  the  ground  of 
justification  ;  of  the  Holy  Spirit  and  the  sacred  Triad. 
How  important  the  service  rendered  in  advance  by 
this  rich  circle  of  ideas,  this  complete  system  of  re- 
ligious symbolism,  to  those  who  strove  to  interpret  to 
the  succeeding  generation  the  life  and  ministration 
and  spiritual  ofiices  of  Christ ! 

*  0€<5?,  but  not  6  deos. 

t  Compare  Coloss.  i.  15,  16. 

J  See  Bryant,  **  Sentiments  of  Philo  concerning  the  Logos." 


376  THE  ALEXANDRIANS. 

But  it  is  not  the  service  rendered  in  this  one  direc- 
tion alone  that  we  owe  to  these  rehgious  schools  of 
Alexandria.  Another  spectacle  so  interesting,  so  sol- 
emn in  its  significance,  is  scarcely  presented  in  the 
whole  history  of  human  thought,  as  this  confluence 
of  the  two  main  streams  of  the  spiritual  life  of  an- 
tiquity. However  fantastic  or  arbitrary  the  partic- 
ular form  into  which  they  ran,  the  point  of  chief 
moment  yet  remains,  —  that  this  confluence  was 
actually  brought  about,  and  at  such  a  time  and  in 
such  a  way  as  to  render  the  most  needed  service  to 
humanity.  The  ripe  fruit  of  ancient  culture,  the 
loftiest  results  attained  by  an  elaborate  metaphysics, 
were  gathered  before  the  root  they  sprang  from  was 
wholly  perished,  —  before  the  intellectual  life  of  the 
time  was  altogether  wasted  and  destroyed  by  scepti- 
cism. The  grand  and  earnest  faith  of  the  old  He- 
brew people  was  the  element  required  to  restore  life 
and  vigour  to  the  effete  metaphysics  of  the  West ; 
while  it  was  saved  from  a  technical  and  vain  provin- 
cialism by  blending  itself  with  the  richer  culture 
developed  on  the  soil  of  Europe.  Each  was  needful 
to  the  other ;  and  their  union  was  brought  about  at 
the  precise  point  of  time  that  made  it  of  the  greatest 
possible  avail  in  the  new  religious  era  about  to  be 
inaugurated. 

Still,  great  and  transcendently  important  as  was 
the  service  thus  effected,  it  was  but  a  service  of  pre- 
paration, —  "a  spectral  and  visionary  fata  morgana 
appearing  on  the  horizon  where  Christianity  was 
about  to  dawn."  *     The  material  was  prepared,  and 

*  Dorner.  « 


JEWISH  PHILOSOPHY  AND   CHRISTIAN  FAITH.      377 

the  way  was  open ;  but  the  breath  of  life  had  yet  to 
be  breathed  from  another  source.  The  Word  as  the 
immanent  Reason  and  Life  of  things,  as  the  divine 
and  creative  Energy,  made  part  of  men's  philosophic 
creed,  and  was  ready  to  be  ingrafted  in  due  season 
on  their  theology.  But  the  same  Word  was  yet  to  be 
recognized  as  "  manifest  in  the  flesh  and  dwelling 
among  men,"  before  the  Alexandrian  speculations 
could  become  fruitful  in  men's  religious  life,  or  the 
final  task  of  Israel  could  be  done.  That  which  had 
been  developed  as  Philosophy  was  to  be  seized  and 
appropriated  as  Faith.  This  was  a  revolution  for 
which  the  world  had  yet  to  wait. 

Nothing  in  the  tone  of  the  writings  we  have  been 
now  considering  is  more  striking  to  the  Christian 
reader  than  their  complete  unconsciousness  of  any 
symptoms  of  the  great  change  already  impending,  — 
their  utter  inability  to  apprehend  their  own  moment 
and  value  as  an  element  in  the  spiritual  regenera- 
tion of  the  race.  The  glorious  "  almost  Christian  " 
thoughts  of  Philo,  so  vivid  in  their  new  relations  as 
symbolic  drapery  of  the  living  form  of  divine  Truth 
and  Love,  appear  but  feebly  and  at  random  in  the 
confused  detail  of  allegoric  interpretations  by  which 
he  was  eager  to  recommend  his  religious  traditions 
to  the  sceptic  and  subtile  Greek.  They  have  to  be 
painfully  sought  and  carefully  traced  out  by  an  eye 
already  familiar  with  them  in  their  new  garb  and  col- 
ouring. And  what  the  Jewish  philosopher  but  cas- 
ually betrays  in  the  undertone  of  allusion,  exposi- 
tion, or  appeal,  becomes,  if  so  regarded,  significant 
of  the  most  momentous  revolution  that  has  ever  been 
wrought  in  the  intellectual  history  of  mankind. 


378  THE  ALEXANDRIANS. 

This  unconscious  testimony,  this  betrayal  at  un- 
awares of  a  form  of  thought  destined  to  have  so 
profound  an  influence  in  the  coming  generation,  is 
what  gives  its  deepest  interest,  and  even  a  certain 
pathos,  to  the  history  of  these  religious  exiles  of 
Alexandria.  The  sacred  treasure  of  their  tradition, 
twice  violently  transferred  from  the  soil  where  its 
growth  was  native,  they  held  with  a  jealous  rever- 
ence ;  and  proved  their  fidelity  by  incorporating  it 
with  the  best  they  could  learn  or  share  of  the  rich 
intellectual  heritage  of  their  adopted  country. 
Standing  on  the  verge  of  their  expiring  fortunes 
as  a  people,  and  destined  within  another  generation 
to  be  dispersed  in  a  far  more  remorseless  "Captiv- 
ity. "  than  any  they  had  known  as  yet,  their  patient 
zeal  lent  itself  to  tlie  task  of  interpreting  to  the 
world  the  oracles  of  their  holy  Word.  The  world 
received  them ;  yet  in  another  than  the  intended 
sense.  And  long  after  the  Hebrew  remnant  was 
shattered  and  dispersed,  and  its  very  name  had  be- 
come a  mockery  and  reproach,  these  very  words  and 
phrases,  by  which  it  signified  the  identity  of  its  own 
tradition  with  the  loftiest  t)f  the  world's  cultivated 
thought,  were  emblazoned  on  the  victorious  Creed 
of  Christendom. 


XII.    THE   MESSIAH. 

FROM  the  death  of  Herod  the  Great  to  the  siege 
of  Jerusalem  by  Titus  is  a  period  of  rather  more 
than  seventy  years.  To  the  Jews  it  was,  almost  from 
first  to  last,  a  time  of  despairing  struggle  and  hopeless 
suffering.  The  destiny  foredoomed  in  the  fate  of  the 
last  native  line  of  kings  came  steadily  on,  like  the 
cloud  which  the  prophet  saw  rising  from  the  west, 
till  it  overwhelmed  state  and  people  in  one  ruin. 
A  single  spot  of  comparative  calm  exhibits  the  ad- 
vent of  the  new  and  higher  Faith  that  sprang  from 
the  perishing  stock  of  Israel ;  all  else  shows  only  a 
protracted  and  disastrous  effort  to  ward  off  the  im- 
pending doom,  animated  by  the  nation's  obstinate 
hope  of  its  coming  Deliverer  and  King. 

The  history  of  this  final  period  turns  therefore 
upon  the  Jewish  expectation  of  the  Messiah, — the 
fanatical  attempts  to  realize  it,  and  "  take  the  king- 
dom of  heaven  by  violence,"  together  with  the  fulfil- 
ment of  it  in  a  revolution  which  burst  the  bands  of 
the  ancient  creed,  threw  down  "  the  middle  wall  of 
partition,"  and  shared  the  hope  of  Israel  among  all  the 
families  of  the  earth.  In  this  regard,  it  is  not  only 
the  catastrophe  of  a  nation  that  we  are  to  consider, 
but  a  crisis  momentous  above  every  other  in  the 


380  THE  MESSIAH. 

spiritual  destinies  of  mankind.  The  fliree  leading 
forms  of  antique  civilization  were  now  come  to  their 
final  term  of  development.  The  way  of  thought  had 
been  prepared  for  the  new  religion  by  a  fusion  be- 
tween the  Hebrew  and  Grecian  mind  as  complete  as 
the  elements  might  admit ;  the  way  of  empire  was 
now  laid  open  by  the  conquests  of  that  great  city 
whose  history  is  henceforth,  for  fifteen  hundred 
years,  the  history  of  the  world.  As  Rome  came  to 
embrace  in  its  dominion  the  circuit  of  the  Mediter- 
ranean, "  the  coast-line  of  Judaea  was  the  last  remote 
portion  which  was  needed  to  complete  the  fated  cir- 
cumference." *  Israel  —  in  the  person  of  its  afflicted 
people,  and  of  One  who  represents  at  this  period  its 
highest  and  truest  life  —  was  the  last  victim  ofiered 
up  on  this  altar  of  the  world,  that  nations  might 
be  reconciled  in  a  common  empire,  and  minds  in  a 
common  faith. 

Such  is  the  spiritual  aspect  of  this  period,  taken  as 
a  whole,  and  its  place  in  the  history  of  the  world. 
As  a  portion  of  the  life  of  the  Hebrew  people,  its 
interest  is  almost  wholly  tragical.  A  destiny,  inex- 
piable and  horrid,  like  that  of  the  Greek  heroic 
drama,  broods  over  it,  growing  more  black  and 
gloomy  towards  the  close.  The  nation's  doom  throws 
its  shadow  far  back  upon  the  past.  Rome,  in  the 
flush  of  her  triumph  over  Hannibal,  had  marked  the 
contests  of  the  petty  Asiatic  states,  and  her  powerful 
word  of  recognition  had  upheld  the  Jewish  common- 
wealth in  the  struggle  by  which  its  last  liberties  were 
won.     Now  the  same  dread  and  domineering  power 

*  Conybeare's  "  St.  Paul." 


REIGN   OF- HEROD.  381 

began  to  invade  those  liberties,  and  to  crush  out  the 
nation's  life. 

Edom,  in  the  language  of  Jewish  mystics,  is  the 
Scripture  type  of  Rome  :  the  reign  of  Herod  made  it 
also  the  historical  type.  It  .was  by  a  Roman  lord  that 
he  was  thrice  made  master  of  the  destinies  of  Israel. 
It  was  the  model  of  Roman  dominion  that  this  power- 
ful and  unscrupulous  Idumaean  chief  laboured  to 
establish.  It  was  as  a  conqueror,  or  (in  the  old 
Greek  sense)  a  tyrant,  that  he  ruled,  —  one  whose 
might  was  his  only  right ;  and  the  nation  never  pro- 
fessed him  its  allegiance.  His  merciless  suspicion 
had  destroyed  every  one  of  the  only  Hebrew  family 
which  the  national  hope  could  oppose  to  him,  so  as 
even  to  undermine  his  own  authority  by  the  murder 
of  his  Maccabaean  wife.  If  he  had  nearly  won  the 
people's  good-will  by  restoring  their  religious  privi- 
lege, and  reinstating  their  ritual  in  far  more  than  its 
ancient  splendour,  he  roused  their  passionate  grief 
by  the  treachery  that  destroyed  their  young  and 
royal  priest  on  the  evening  of  their  high  festival ; 
and  tempted  their  deadliest  suspicion  by  the  foreign 
manners  with  which  he  invaded  their  national  char- 
acter and  faith.  The  stately  temple,  glittering  with 
marble  front  and  gilded  roof,  displayed  on  its  portal 
the  imperial  golden  eagle,  and  was  flanked  by  the 
impregnable  fortress  Antonia,  named  by  Herod  for 
the  most  profligate  of  the  Romans.  A  theatre  within 
the  walls  exhibited  the  Greek  plays  and  dances ;  an 
amphitheatre  without,  the  bloody  spectacles  of  Rome. 
Caesarea,  with  its  spacious  port  and  marble  colonnades, 
"  a  habitation  of  princes,"  was  a  Roman  town  ;  bear- 


382  THE   MESSIAH. 

ing,  like  Sebaste  or  Augusta,  the  Roman  emperor's 
name.  In  strict  accordance  with  the  centralizing 
policy  of  the  empire,  Herod  thus  sapped  the  charac- 
teristic life  of  his  own  people,  and  provoked  the  first 
outbreak  of  that  "  frightful  Messianic  tempest "  which 
raged  with  little  intermission  for  more  than  half  a 
century,  and  ceased  not  but  with  the  total  ruin  of 
the  Jewish  state. 

While  his  two  sons,  Archelaus  and  Antipas,  were 
disputing  their  claim  before  Augustus,  the  revolt 
(which  had  already  begun  in  an  assault  on  the  gold 
eagle  of  the  temple)  first  took  a  distinct  and  threat- 
ening shape.  With  no  royal  or  priestly  line  about 
which  the  hopes  of  all  might  rally,  Palestine  was  for 
a  few  years  a  prey  to  aimless  bursts  of  frenzy,  and 
the  .feuds  of  as  many  pretended  kings  as  there  were 
ambitious  rebel  chiefsi  Judas,  son  of  the  old  Gali- 
laean  bandit  Hezekiah,  Simon,  a  former  slave  of 
Herod,  who  destroyed  many  royal  palaces,  and  the 
giant  shepherd  Athronges,  are  named  in  quick  suc- 
cession as  candidates  for  the  perilous  honours  of 
royalty  ;  and  a  pretender,  in  the  name  of  Alexander 
son  of  Mariamne,  received  homage  and  royal  gifts 
from  the  Jews  in  Crete  and  Rome,  till  Augustus, 
looking  at  his  hands,  which  were  strong  and  coarse, 
exposed  the  imposture,  and  made  him  a  rower  in  the 
imperial  galleys.  "  Thus  did  a  great  and  wild  fury 
spread  itself  over  the  nation,  because  they  had  no 
king  to  keep  the  multitude  in  order,"  and  because 
the  troops  sent  to  quell  the  sedition  cared  less  for  the 
public  peace  than  for  plunder  and  revenge.  "Ju.daea 
was  full  of  robberies ;  and  as  the  several  companies 


JUDMA  A  ROMAN  PROVINCE.  383 

of  rebels  lit  upon  any  one  to  head  them,  he  was 
created  a  king  immediately." 

This  horrible  disorder  was  stayed  by  Yarns,  the 
Syrian  governor,  —  mercifully  and  temperately,  it 
should  seem,  by  the  standard  of  provincial  rule,  but 
at  the  cost  of  crucifying  some  two  thousand  of  the 
guiltiest.  The  Jews  sent  to  Rome  to  beg  such  liber- 
ties as  the  imperial  state  might  grant.  Loudly  and 
bitterly  they  accused  the  recent  tyranny  of  Herod, 
who  '•'  had  put  upon  them  such  abuses  as  not  a  wild 
beast  upon  the  throne  would  have  done  ; "  they 
entreated  "  to  be  delivered  from  kingly  and  the  like 
forms  of  government ; "  and  prayed  to  be  put  under 
the  more  just  rule  of  the  Syrian  governor,  whoever 
he  might  be.  But  Herod's  three  sons,  Archelaus, 
Antipas,  and  Philip,  were  confirmed  as  rulers  of  three 
districts  of  Palestine,  till  ten  years  later,  when  the 
popular  complaint  of  "  barbarous  and  tyrannical 
usage  "  reached  Augustus's  ears,  and  Archelaus  was 
sent  into  banishment  to  Gaul. 

Now  for  the  first  time  Judaea  was  enrolled  as  a 
Roman  province,  and  the  celebrated  "  taxing"  took 
place  under  Cyrenius  (or  Quirinus),  governor  of 
Syria.  (A.  D.  7.)  Not  all  were  prepared  to  submit 
peaceably  to  this  surrender  of  the  last  forms  of  inde- 
pendence. A  formidable  revolt  under  Judas  the 
Gaulonite  began  that  systematic  opposition  to  the 
Roman  rule  —  now  latent,  now  open  and  furious  — 
which  took  presently  the  final  and  fatal  form  of  the 
sect  of  Zealots.  "  The  nation  was  infected  with  tliis 
doctrine  to  an  incredible  degree  ; "  whence  resulted, 
says  Josephus,  robberies  and  murders  innumerable, 


384  THE    MESSIAH. 

with  famine  and  the  dreadful  desolation  that  came  at 
last.  ■  But  the  object  which  Roman  policy  had  aimed 
at  so  long  was  now  secured.  Judaea  by  its  own 
choice  had  become  a  portion  of  the  conquering 
empire.  Steadily  and  irresistibly  pressed  the  re- 
morseless Roman  rule,  aggravated,  no  doubt,  by  the 
scorn  felt  towards  the  race  and  faith.*  Coponius 
Ambivius  and  Antonius  Rufus  filled  with  their  brief 
administrations  the  last  seven  years  of  Augustus. 
Tiberius  during  all  his  reign  (A.  D.  14  -  37)  sent 
only  two,  Valerius  Gratus  and  Pontius  Pilate,  —  a 
merciful  relief  to  the  impatient  rapacity  of  those 
whose  term  of  legal  plunder  was  brief  and  must  be 
improved.  The  reason  Tiberius  gave  is  characteris- 
tic of  the  Roman  rule  generally,  as  well  as  of  his 
own  cold  and  scornful  temper :  —  he  would  not 
drive  away  the  flies  that  were  already  well  gorged 
with  feeding  on  the  "  sick  man's  "  bruises  and  sores, 
and  so  admit  a  fresh,  hungry  swarm. 

The  reign  of  Tiberius,  so  full  of  the  sullen  terrors 
of  tyranny  at  home,  was  accordingly  a  time  of  com- 
parative repose  to  Palestine.  The  north  was  ruled 
by  Herod  Antipas  ;  the  east  by  the  milder  Philip ; 
Gratus  and  Pilate  sharing  successively  the  domination 
of  the  south.  Roman  policy  spared  such  national 
customs,  and  religious  beliefs  or  rites,  as  did  not 
openly  challenge  Roman  supremacy  in  the  state. 
In  secular  affairs  Caesar  claimed  his  own  ;  in  spirit- 
ual, no  conscience  Was  forbidden  to  "  render  to  God 

*  "  Vile  damnum,"  says  Tacitus,  speaking  of  a  few  thousand  Jews 
expelled  from  Rome,  who  perished  in  the  savage  island  of  Sardinia. 
(Annals,  II.  85.) 


PONTIUS  PILATE.  385 

the  things  that  are  God's."  Neither  of  the  Procura- 
tors under  Tiberius  exceeded  the  average  of  provin- 
cial peculation  and  cruelty ;  both  probably  came 
short  of  it.  As  long  as  the  national  hope  remained 
a  barren  doctrine,  —  nay,  even  when  it  took  the  form 
of  a  strong  popular  enthusiasm  (as  in  the  case  of 
Jesus),  yet  without  directly  menacing  the  imperial 
rule, —  it  was  the  cautious  policy  of  Pilate  not  to 
interfere.  Experience,  indeed,  had  made  him  wary, 
and  suspicion  made  him  cruel,  as  in  the  case  of  the 
Galilaeans  whose  blood  he  "  mingled  with  their  sac- 
rifices,'^ —  a  temper  which  the  Jews  easily  wrought 
upon  to  procure  a  Galilaean  prophet's  condemna- 
tion ;  *  and  one  is  tempted  to  assign  a  diplomatic 
motive,  rather  than  humane,  to  his  long  parleying 
with  them  in  the  Judgment  Hall,  as  if  he  would 
commit  them  in  advance  against  any  Messianic  insur- 
rection. Gaining  this,  he  safely  insulted  the  nation's 
hope  by  the  mocking  inscription  on  the  cross.  Once 
he  ventured  so  far  as  to  bring  the  emperor's  image 
on  the  Roman  ensigns  within  the  sacred  city;  but 
when  the  Jews  offered  themselves,  without  resis1>- 
ance,  to  be  massacred  by  the  troops  rather  than 
endure  the  sacrilege,  he  yielded,  and  carried  the 
images  back  to  Caesarea.f  Once  a  popular  revolt 
was  threatened,  when  he  undertook  to  build  an 
aqueduct  of  some  twenty-five  miles  from  the  funds 
of  the  temple  treasury  ;  but  a  party  of  his  guards, 
mingling  in  the  crowd,  despatched  no  few  of  them 

*  Luke  xiii.  1 ;   xxiii.  6. 

t  Or  the  imperial  shields,  as  Philo  says,  which  he  remoyed  at  Tibe- 
rius's  command. 

17  T 


386  THE  MESSIAH. 

with  hidden  daggers,  and  "  quickly  put  an  end  to 
that  sedition." 

In  this  last  brief  period  of  the  nation's  life,  some 
show  of  independence  was  still  preserved.  The  gov- 
ernor's head-quarters  were  at  Cassarea  on  the  sea- 
coast.  Jerusalem  was  the  religious  capital  of  the 
district,  and  was  left  mainly  under  native  rule.  A 
spiritual  power,  resting  on  the  sacred  tradition,  and 
administered  by  Rabbins*  (interpreters,  or  doctors 
of  the  Canon-Law),  had  gradually  grown  up  since 
the  Captivity,  and  for  practical  purposes  had  nearly 
supplanted  the  priesthood  itself.  This  learned  body 
had  now  acquired  an  extraordinary  sanctity.  "  The 
voice  of  the  Rabbi  is  the  voice  of  God,"  was  the  Jewish 
saying  ;  and  the  Almighty  himself  was  pictured,  by  a 
coarse  and  irreverent  fancy,  as  the  ideal  or  archetypal 
Rabbi,  —  his  robes  of  authority  and  his  daily  cus- 
toms being  those  of  this  "spiritual  police."  f  Where 
there  are  ten  who  have  knowledge  of  the  Law,  there 
must  be  a  Synagogue  with  its  stated  service ;  if  fewer 
assemble,  the  Lord  will  say.  Wherefore  am  I  called 
and  none  are  here  ?  With  each  synagogue  was  con- 
nected a  school  for  the  instruction  in  the  Law ;  in 
Palestine,  it  was  said,  were  five  hundred  such  schools, 
the  least  containing  five  hundred  pupils  ;  Rabbi  Ga- 
maliel alone  had  no  less  than  a  thousand,  of  whom 
half  studied  Jewish  and  half  Gentile  learning.     In 

*  The  title  Rabbi  is  said  to  have  been  first  given  to  Simeon,  —  the 
same  who  took  up  the  infant  Jesus  in  the  temple. 

t  Three  hours  a  day,  they  said,  he  renders  judgment,  three  hours  he 
contemplates  the  Law,  three  hours  he  feeds  his  creatures,  and  three  he 
plays  with  Leviathan.     (Job  xli.  5.) 


THE  SANHEDRIM.  387 

Jerusalem  alone  were  four  hundred  and  sixty  syna- 
gogues. "  To  multiply  schools  and  put  a  hedge 
about  the  Law,"  was  the  Rabbinic  maxim.  Such  a 
system  of  public  instruction  by  degrees  gathered  the 
real  religious  power  into  the  hands  of  tliis  body  ;  and 
more  than  all  else  prepared  the  name  and  faith  of 
Israel  to  survive  the  annihilation  of  temple,  priest- 
hood, and  the  nation's  life. 

At  the  head  of  this  system  of  spiritual  jurisdiction 
was  the  Sanhedrim,  or  great  Court  of  Seventy.  Tra- 
dition fondly  traced  it  by  direct  descent  from  the 
"  elders  "  appointed  by  Moses  in  the  wilderness.  It 
was  now  in  its  highest  eminence  and  splendour,  with 
power  supreme  in  religious  affairs,  and  civil  authority 
little  short  of  life  and  death.  While  the  Temple  was 
shorn  of  its  ancient  glories,  —  deprived  of  the  Divine 
fire,  ark,  and  holy  oracle,  the  Shekinah  or  visible 
Presence,  and  the  consecrating  oil,  —  a  share  of  its 
diminished  sanctity  fell  to  this  great  ecclesiastical 
Court.  Pilate  himself  was  practically  powerless  to 
rescue  Jesus  from  its  condemnation  ;  and  the  death- 
sentence  of  the  first  Christian  martyr  was  delayed  for 
no  formal  sanction  of  procurator  or  king.  "  To  each 
state  its  own  religion,"  was  the  maxim  of  Roman 
rule  ;  *  and  among  the  Jews  civil  and  religious  mat- 
ters were  so  intimately  blended,  that  in  virtue  of  it 
no  small  degree  of  popular  liberty  still  survived.  A 
style  of  thought  had  gradually  grown  up,  and  was 
prevalent  now,  as  characteristic  and  strongly  marked 
as  at  any  former  period  of  Hebrew  history.  As  being 
(so  to  speak)  the  last  expression  of  the  Hebrew  mind, 

*  Cicero,  Pro  Flacco,  c.  28,  in  express  reference  to  the  Jews. 


388  THE  MESSIAH. 

and  as  forming  that  soil  of  Judaism  in  which  the 
religion  of  Christ  had  its  first  planting  and  nurture, 
it  becomes  one  of  the  most  important  features  of  the 
age  we  are  now  considering. 

While  the  Jews  of  Egypt  were  slowly  transforming 
the  faith  of  their  fathers  into  the  likeness  of  Grecian 
wisdom,  among  those  in  Palestine  had  grown  up  a 
system  of  belief  more  deeply  tinged  with  Oriental 
notions, — far  more  characteristically  and  exclusive- 
ly Jewish.  The  speculations  they  shared  with  their 
brethren  in  the  remoter  East  became  sacred  mysteries, 
hidden  by  the  cipher  of  which  Rabbinic  tradition  only 
held  the  key.  They  became  scholiasts  of  Holy  Writ ; 
explaining  it  "  by  anagram,  riddle,  and  acrostic," 
by  cabalistic  play  of  numbers,*  by  a  system  of  casuist- 
ry marvellously  and  hopelessly  minute. f  The  Scrip- 
tures, in  such  a  system,  are  easily  made  the  source 
and  summary  of  all  wisdom.  Not  "  a  jot  or  a  tittle  " 
could  pass  from  the  law ;  :j:  to  every  letter  was  as- 

*  Thus,  taking  the  numerical  equivalent  of  "Ethiopian  "  (Numbers  xii.  1 ), 
they  explained  that  Moses  married  a  woman  of  "  fair  countenance,"  so 
acquitting  him  of  the  guilt  of  an  uncanonical  marriage.  The  numerical 
value  of  David  is  14  (Matthew  i.  17)  ;  of  Balaam  son  ofBeor,  666 
(Revelation  xiii.  18);  and  Shiloh,  by  the  same  interpretation,  is  made 
equivalent  to  Messiah. 

t  A  celelebrated  Rabbi  says  that  there  are  at  least  eight  hundred 
volumes  which  he  must  have  "  at  his  fingers'  ends,"  to  meet  cases 
of  daily  practice.  "  How  should  he  have  time  for  Grentile  learn- 
ing?" 

X  Illustrated,  in  Jewish  fashion,  thus  :  The  letter  Jod  fell  on  its  face 
before  God,  and  said,  0  eternal  Lord !  thou  hast  taken  me  away  from 
the  name  of  that  holy  woman  !  (in  the  change  from  Sarai  to  Sara) ; 
but  the  blessed  God  answered,  Hitherto  thou  hast  been  but  in  the  name 
of  a  woman,  and  that  at  the  end ;  hereafter  thou  shalt  be  in  the  name 
of  a  man,  and  at  the  beginning.    And  for  four  hundred  years  the  letter 


SCRIPTURE  AND   TRADITION.  389 

signed  its  place  and  traditionary  size  in  the  sacred 
scroll ;  *  and  the  mightiest  miracles  are  wrought  by 
the  hidden  virtue  of  the  letters  which  spell  the  name 
Jehovah,  f 

The  dominant  sect  of  Pharisees  had  an  equal 
jealousy  at  the  allegorical  fancies  of  the  Mystics,  and 
that  whole  style  of  learning  which  they  comprehen- 
sively termed  "  wisdom  of  Javan."  "  Is  it  not  writ- 
ten in  the  Law,"  said  a  Rabbi  to  his  scholar,  "  that 
thou  shalt  meditate  therein  day  and  night  ?  whatever 
hour,  therefore,  thou  canst  find  belonging  neither  to 
the  day  nor  night,  in  that  thou  mayest  study  Grecian 
wisdom."  In  the  interpreting  of  Scripture,  Prophecy 
itself  is  set  far  below  that  oral  Tradition  which  was 
given  by  Moses  to  the  Seventy,  and  from  them  descend- 
ed to  Ezra,  by  whom  it  was  embodied  in  the  doctrines 
of  his  school.  J  It  was  even  a  question  whether  the 
Law  itself  or  the  tradition  were  the  holier ;  "  The 
words  of  the  Law  are  weighty  and  light,  but  the 
words  of  the  Scribes  are  all  weighty,"  was  a  saying 

Jod  did  not  cease  to  importune,  until  Oshea  the  son  of  Nun  was  born, 
whom  the  Lord  called  Joshua. 

*  Thus  the  full  form  toledoth  ("generations")  occurs  only  in  Kuth 
iv.  18 :  by  its  six  letters,  say  the  Rabbins,  it  is  shown  that  in  Messiah 
shall  be  restored  the  glory  of  man,  length  of  days,  stature,  fruits  of  earth, 
fruits  of  trees,  and  light  of  heaven.  The  letter  Nun  is  twice  reversed  ; 
signifying  once  the  turning  of  Jehovah  to  his  people,  and  once  their 
turning  back  from  him.  It  is  an  argument  for  the  stability  of  Scrip- 
ture, that  a  diminished  Heth  has  not  vanished  entirely. 

t  The  Shem  hamphorash  ("explained  name"),  by  the  stolen  knowl- 
edge of  which,  say  the  Rabbins,  the  miracles  of  Jesus  were  wrought. 

t  Since  Malachi,  they  said,  the  Urim  and  Thummim  have  ceased  in 
Israel ;  in  place  of  which  is  granted  the  audible  omen,  or  Bath-kol, 
"  daughter  of  the  Voice,"  —  a  reverential  and  beautiful  belief,  to  which 
several  allusions  occur  in  the  Christian  Scripture. 


390  THE  MESSIAH. 

among  the  Jews,  —  one  which  must  have  been  vehe- 
mently contested  until  the  dispute  was  compromised 
by  affirming  that  both,  if  not  absolutely  eternal,  at 
least  existed  in  Paradise  before  the  world  was. 

That  storehouse  of  Jewish  fancy,  anecdote,  custom, 
tradition,  and 'canon-law,  the  Talmud,  was  in  great 
part  gathered  in  its  present  form  a  century  or  two 
later,  but  was  already  in  substance  the  popular  creed 
and  the  staple  learning  of  Jewish  schools.  Its  body 
of  doctrine  may  have  owned  a  Babylonish  parentage  ; 
but  the  garb  it  wore  was  woven  of  Scripture  threads. 
All  is  taught  in  detail,  and  by  specification.  Thus 
pre-existence  and  transmigration  are  signified  in  the 
dogmatic  formula  that  all  men  have  sinned  in  Adam, 
and  in  him  a  covenant  was  made  with  them  long 
before  their  birth.  From  the  dim  cloud-land,  Goph^ 
the  limbo  of  pre-existent  spirits,  each  child  is  before  - 
its  birth  led  by  an  angel  to  hell  and  paradise,  whereof 
all  after  knowledge  is  but  a  faint  reminiscence.  The 
federal  head  of  the  human  race  is  Adam  Kadmon  the 
primal  Man,  male-female,*  from  whom  all  souls  are 
emanations  ;  or,  by  another  opinion,  his  spirit  is  the 
image  of  God  incarnate  afterwards  in  Enoch,  Noah, 
Jacob,  and  the  Messiah.f  Elijah  is  identical  with 
Phinehas,  Melchizedek,  and  Shem ;  Laban  still  car- 
ries on  his  strife  with  Israel  in  the  person  of  Balaam 
and   of  Cushan-Rishathaim  the  first  invader.      The 

*  Genesis  i.  27. 

t  So  some  of  the  early  Christians  held  that  Jesus  was  clothed  in 
Adam's  body,  and  crucified  upon  the  spot  of  his  grave.  See  in  Sir 
John  Mandeville  the  beautiful  legend  of  the  Cross,  wrought  of  four 
kinds  of  trees,  —  the  cedar  for  strength,  the  cypress  for  fragrance,  the 
palm  for  victory,  and  the  olive  for  peace. 


OPINIONS  AND  FANCIES   OF   THE   TALMUD.        391 

seven  dukes  of  Edom  "  before  there  was  any  king  in 
Israel "  signify  seven  preadamic  worlds,  which  were 
"without  form  and  void "  previous  to  the  existing 
creation.  And  the  phrase  "  day  one "  (instead  of 
"  first  day  "),  in  the  story  of  the  Creation,  has  a  mys- 
terious reference  to  the  unity  of  all  things  in  God. 
"  A  man  does  not  hurt  his  finger  on  earth  but  it  is 
decreed  in  heaven,"  was  the  proverbial  form  of  the 
doctrine  of  predestination ;  "a  little  bird  is  not  taken 
without  the  will  of  Heaven  ;  how  much  less  the  soul 
of  a  man." 

Well  known  to  us,  through  the  New  Testament,  are 
the  doctrines  of  Dasmons,  descended  from  the  "  sons 
of  God  and  daughters  of  men,"  as  the  cause  of  many 
maladies  ;  of  Beelzebub  their  prince,  and  their  desert- 
haunts  ;  of  Satan  the  chief  Adversary,  whom  the  Mes- 
siah must  overcome  in  personal  encounter,  so  as  to 
expiate  his  people's  sin ;  of  guardian  spirits  and  the 
hierarchy  of  the  Angels;  of  sin  before  birth,  and 
disease  the  penalty  of  parents'  guilt ;  as  well  as  the 
scrupulous  casuistry  of  the  rules  respecting  Sabbath, 
fasting,  alms,  and  prayer.*    The  extraordinary  fables 

*  As  an  instance  of  Jewish  scruple,  when  a  poor  scholar  asked  if  it 
were  lawful  for  cheapness  to  write  on  pigskin  parchment,  the  reply  was, 
"  Is  it  not  written,  The  words  of  this  Law  shall  be  in  thy  mouth  and  in 
thy  heart?"  whence  it  was  ingeniously  gathered  that  they  might  be 
written  on  the  skins  of  such  beasts  only  as  may  be  eaten.  One  prayer 
of  the  Jews  was  recited  in  Syriac,  lest  the  angels,  who  are  ignorant  of 
that  tongue,  should  overhear  it,  and  envy  the  Jews  the  blessings  it 
besought.  The  rules  of  the  Sabbath  are  curiously  quibbling  and 
minute.  The  wretched  Jewish  exiles  from  the  Spanish  Inquisition, 
starving  on  the  African  shore,  would  not  gather  with  their  hands  on  the 
Sabbath  the  grass  which  was  their  only  food,  but  stooped  and  plucked 
it  with  their  teeth. 


392  THE  MESSIAH. 

respecting  the  terrestrial  Paradise  in  Messiah's  king- 
dom ;  of  Behemoth,  a  beast  so  huge  as  to  cover  "  a 
thousand  hills,"  and  Leviathan,  slain  and  salted  from 
of  old  for  the  everlasting  banquets  of  the  elect ; 
vineyards,  of  which  each  cluster  shall  yield  a  year's 
store  of  wine,  and  each  grape  be  clamorous  to  be 
gathered  before  its  fellow ;  and  the  prodigious  stature 
of  the  primal  Adam,*  are  the  grotesque  exaggeration 
and  travesty  peculiar  to  the  later  style  of  Judaism. 

The  two  grand  pivots  of  this  system  of  doctrine  are 
"  Moses,  the  ideal  of  the  past,  and  Messiah,  the  ideal 
of  the  future,"  between  whom  ran  an  elaborate 
dogmatic  parallelism. 

Moses  is  made  almost  a  divinity,  —  "a  prophet 
(says  Josephus)  such  as  never  was  known ;  so  that 
whatever  he  spake  one  would  think  he  heard  the 
voice  of  God  himself."  The  miracle  of  crossing  the 
Red  Sea  was  magnified  by  supposing  twelve  separate 
channels  in  the  waves  for  the  twelve  tribes  of  Israel ; 
and  even  by  asserting  that  the  people  crossed  dry- 
shod,  walking  upon  the  waters.  At  the  giving  of  the 
Law,  Mount  Sinai  was  lifted  up  to  heaven  ;  and  the 
Israelites,  thus  "  baptized  in  the  cloud  and  in  the 
sea,"  were  washed  free  from  all  stain  of  original  sin. 
The  mysterious  expression,  that  they  "  saw  the  light- 
nings and  the  noise  of  the  trumpet,"  was  interpreted 
into  the  startling  fancy  that  the  trumpet-voice  be- 
came "  cloven  tongues  of  fire,"  which  proclaimed  the 
Law  in  the  seventy  languages  of  the  earth ;  so  that 
each  nation,  summoned  by  the  same  trump  to  judg- 

*  A  phantom  man  ninety-six  miles  high ;  his  terrestrial  representa- 
tive reaching  a  hundred  and  twenty-five  feet. 


MOSES.  —  MESSIANIC  DOCTRINE.  393 

ment,  shall  be  righteously  judged  by  the  same  law, 
"without  which  there  can  be  no  sin."  When  the 
time  drew  near  for  Moses  to  depart,  the  Lord  thrice 
sent  Sammael  the  death-angel  to  bring  away  his  soul, 
which  he  would  yield  to  none  other  but  God  himself, 
who  received  it  with  a  kiss ;  he  was  taken  up  to 
heaven  in  a  cloud,  in  the  presence  of  his  grieving 
companions  ;  and  Michael  the  archangel,  the  celestial 
champion  of  Israel,  strove  with  Satan  for  his  body.* 

Whatever  wonders  had  attended  the  old  dispensa- 
tion were  greatly  magnified  in  the  anticipation  of  the 
new.  That  prayer,  say  the  Jewish  writers,  is  not  a 
prayer,  which  does  not  make  mention  of  the  kingdom 
of  God.  The  coming  of  that  kingdom  in  the  person 
and  triumph  of  the  Messiah  had  been  the  old  pro- 
phetic hope,  which  was  elaborated  now  into  a  doctrine 
full  and  positive  enough  to  make  for  two  generations 
the  goad  of  the  people's  struggle  and  the  final  crisis 
of  the  nation's  life.  A  prevalent  belief  among  the 
Jews  fixed  the  duration  of  the  world  at  seven  thou- 
sand years,  of  which  six  were  nearly  expired,  —  the 
remaining  thousand  being  the  Messiah's  destined 
triumphant  reign.  In  the  calamities  of  the  time, 
it  was  felt  that  "  the  whole  creation  groaned  and 
travailed  in  pain  "  for  the  birth  of  the  coming  One  ;  f 
and  the  "  seventy  weeks  "  predicted  in  the  Book  of 
Daniel  were  by  the  general  interpretation  just  ful- 
filled. "Through  the  whole  East,"  says  Suetonius, 
"  an  old  and  constant  opinion  had  spread  that  the 

*  See  Epistle  of  Jude  v.  9. 

t  Romans  viii.  22.  Compare  the  expression  dpxv  twv  (obivcovy 
Matt.  xxiv.  8. 

17* 


394  THE  MESSIAH. 

destined  rulers  of  things  should  come  about  this  time 
from  Judaea."  "  When  you  bury  me,"  said  a  dying 
Jew,  "  put  shoes  on  my  feet  and  a  staff  in  my  hand, 
that  I  may  be  ready  when  Messiah  cometh."  Many 
a  man,  "just  and  devout  was  waiting  (like  Simeon) 
for  the  consolation  of  Israel ;  "  many  a  mother  hoped 
in  her  heart  that  her  new-born  child  should  be  the 
expected  one.  And  the  belief  was  no  doubt  encour- 
aged, and  moulded  to  their  own  purpose,  by  men  who 
had  no  hearty  share  in  it ;  who  were  too  willing  to 
profit  by  the  popular  faith  as  a  point  of  resistance  to 
Roman  tyranny,  or  to  enhance  the  price  of  their  own 
discretion,  while  they  left  the  multitude  a  prey  to  the 
frenzies  and  oppressions  which  such  a  doctrine  must 
provoke. 

The  details  of  the  Messianic  hope  at  this  period 
were  peculiarly  the  property  and  shaping  of  the  re- 
ligious schools  ;  vague  and  incoherent  as  it  doubtless 
was,  yet  modelled  in  the  main  after  a  common  type. 
A  most  disastrous  hope  it  proved  in  the  form  now 
given  it,  "  more  fatal  to  them  than  any  pestilence  ;  a 
faith  to  which  they  sacrificed  myriads  of  their  stoutest 
youth."  The  fruit  at  first  of  a  pure  religious  patriot- 
ism, the  solace  of  deep  calamity,  the  stay  against  im- 
pending ruin,  it  had  grown  to  be  a  vindictive  and 
passionate  confidence  of  triumph  and  revenge.  A 
hope  long  deferred  it  was  ;  and  Jewish  subtilty  was 
exhausted  to  devise  the  conditions  of  its  fulfilment. 
The  Messiah  would  come,  they  said,  if  the  Sabbath 
sliould  be  perfectly  observed  twice  or  thrice  ;  or  if  for 
a  single  day  all  Israel  should  heartily  repent.  "  Open 
to  me  the  way  of  repentance  as  the  eye  of  a  needle," 


SIGNS  OF  HIS   COMING.  395 

they  said,  "  and  I  will  open  to  you  a  passage  for  char- 
iots." The  coming  deliverance  must  be  preceded 
by  great  disasters.  Corruption  and  depravity  should 
overspread  the  earth,  with  desertion  of  the  law,  fol- 
lowed by  dreadful  judgments  of  heaven  in  calamity 
of  many  kinds,  —  drought,  famine,  and  tempest,  pes- 
tilence and  war,  with  the  horrors  so  powerfully  re- 
flected in  the  apocalyptic  warning  given  to  the  fol- 
lowers of  Jesus.*  "  Galilee  shall  be  destroyed,  and 
the  men  of  Galilee  shall  go  from  place  to  place,  and 
shall  find  no  pity." 

These  calamities,  drawn  too  truly  from  the  fact, 
were  no  arbitrary  infliction,  nor  a  mere  retributive 
judgment  on  the  people  ;  but  in  the  Jewish  view  had 
a  direct  propitiatory  value.  Not  only,  by  their  doc- 
trine of  expiation,  did  the  faith  of  Abraham  and  the 
patriarchs  atone  in  advance  for  their  descendants'  sin, 
but  all  death,  especially  one  of  violence,  and  all  suf- 
fering, especially  that  which  befalls  the  innocent,  has 
the  same  efiect.f  Moved,  therefore,  not  so  much  by 
compassion  as  by  the  legal  expiation  of  their  guilt, 
God  should  bring  his  people  to  a  season  of  repent- 
ance, and  Israel  should  be  once  more  redeemed  by 
the  merit  of  the  saints.  For,  they  held,  miraculous 
degrees  of  virtue  and  superhuman  holiness  among 
the  chosen  few  are  a  better  passport  to  Divine  favour 
than  the  more  moderate  and  equal  virtue  of  the 
whole ;  it  is  for  the  elect's  sake  that  the  world  is  pre- 

*  Matthew,  chap.  xxiv. ;  Luke,  chap,  xxi, 

t  See  John  xi.  50.  Hence  the  execution  of  criminals  at  the  time  of 
Passover ;  and  the  abuse  and  vilifying  of  the  condemned,  in  the  merci- 
ful hope  of  alleviating  their  torments  in  another  vyrorld. 


396  THE  MESSIAH. 

served  and  redeemed  ;  it  is  the  sacrificial  efficacy  of 
their  merit,  or  their  suffering,  that  wins  the  blessing 
from  above. 

That  blessing  should  be  granted  at  length,  in  the 
voluntary  manumission  of  captive  Jews  among  all 
nations,  in  preparation  for  the  reign  of  peace.  Under 
a  mysterious  impulse  from  God,  or  by  the  invisible 
guidance  of  his  Word,  the  ransomed  captives  should 
throng  at  once  to  Palestine.  Then  should  be  a  season 
of  prosperity  and  gladness  to  the  chosen  land.  Cities 
should  be  built,  and  the  ancient  realm  of  Israel  re- 
stored to  far  more  than  its  former  splendour.  Then, 
heralded  by  the  star  of  Jacob,  the  victorious  Warrior 
and  just  Prince  should  come,  and  inflict  a  bloody  ven- 
geance on  the  enemies  of  his  people.  His  coming 
should  be  as  a  thief  in  the  night ;  being  manifested 
first  "in  Galilee  and  the  parts  of  Joseph,  because 
Galilee  was  first  led  captive."  In  him  (to  quote  the 
vague  and  various  opinions  of  the  Jews)  shall  be 
incarnate  the  spirit  that  was  in  Moses  and  Elias ;  ho 
shall  be  the  second  Adam,  to  restore  the  ruins  of  the 
first ;  the  prophet,  like  to  Moses,  whose  name  is  Com- 
forter ;  the  ideal  or  official  representative  of  the  He- 
brew people ;  the  prophet,  priest,  and  king,  to  fulfil 
the  purpose  of  the  elder  dispensation  ;  the  Son  of 
Man,  who  shall  sit  in  judgment  over  men  and  angels ; 
the  embodiment  of  the  pre-existing  wisdom  or  Word 
of  God ;  the  Son  of  David,  who  shall  restore  the 
kingdom  to  Israel ;  the  Son  of  God,  born  of  no 
human  father,  but  of  the  Divine  Spirit:  the  breath 
of  his  mouth  shall  be  a  flame  to  slay  the  wicked. 
The  ten  lost  tribes  shall  be  restored  from  their  long 


FRUITS   OF  HIS   COMING.  397 

exile,  to  rejoin  their  brethren  in  the  Holy  Land. 
Kings  shall  bring  their  gifts ;  all  nations  shall  either 
be  subdued  or  peaceably  submit.  All  war  and  crime 
shall  cease,  and  all  ravage  of  wild  beasts.  Children 
and  kindred  shall  throng  in  every  house,  and  none 
shall  die  before  their  time.  Jerusalem,  its  palaces 
decked  with  gold  and  jewels,  shall  spread  from  the 
sea  coast  to  Damascus,  —  its  length,  breadth,  and 
lieight  all  equal.*  The  river  of  life  shall  flow  from 
the  temple  ;  the  tree  of  life  grow  for  the  faithful. 
No  blind,  lame,  or  leper  shall  be  found  there;  the 
pious  dead  shall  be  restored  to  die  no  more ;  "  and 
all  shall  be  gathered  in  Paradise,  with  fulness  of  de- 
light all  the  days  of  the  world,  fed  with  bread  from 
heaven ;  and  Messiah  shall  give  his  people  peace." 

Still  another  form  of  belief  was  that  the  Messiah 
should  come  twice,  —  once  as  the  Son  of  Joseph  (or 
representative  of  the  ten  tribes)  to  expiate  by  his 
death  the  sin  of  Israel  in  the  division  of  the  king- 
dom ;  who  should  lead  the  nation  victoriously  as  far 
as  the  gates  of  Jerusalem,  but  be  defeated  there,  and 
perish  at  the  hands  of  his  foes :  and  again,  as  the 
Son  of  David,  to  represent  the  branch  and  reward 
the  fidelity  of  Judah ;  who  should  ride,  as  peaceful 
sovereign,  the  same  ass  that  Abraham  and  Moses  rode, 
and  die  at  length  in  peace,  leaving  the  restored  king- 
dom to  his  children. 

Four  distinct  elements  are  more  or  less  confusedly 
blended  in  the  popular  expectation  as  thus  described : 
the  general  prophetic  conception  of  a  political  De- 
Uverer,  most  frequent  and  popular  of  all ;  the  super- 

*  See  Revelation  xxi.  16. 


398  THE  MESSIAH. 

human  Presence  described  in  Daniel  *  as  "  the  Son 
of  Man  coming  in  the  clouds  of  heaven  ;  "  the  divine 
Word  (of  the  Alexandrians),  or  Adam  Kadmon  (of 
the  Cabbalists),  in  whom  the  divine  image  should  be 
restored  to  man  ;  and  the  "  Prophet,  like  to  Moses,"  f 
who  should  complete  the  purpose  of  the  Law,  and  make 
a  transfigured  or  heavenly  Israel  the  spiritual  sover- 
eign of  all  people  ;  —  while  other  features  were  added, 
as  a  capricious  fancy  devised,  or  as  some  fresh  disas- 
ter or  disappointment  required  fresh  interpretation. 

Thus,  derived  from  many  sources  and  suited  to 
every  variety  and  extravagance  of  men's  desire,  the 
Messianic  hope  of  the  age  was  the  more  passionate 
and  intense  the  less  it  was  capable  of  consistent  state- 
ment or  clear  analysis.  Its  diversity  of  ingredients 
political  and  religious,  gave  room  to  all  latitude 
of  exposition.  The  desperate  patriotism  of  the  Zeal- 
ots would  make  it  the  incitement  to  revolt,  and  en- 
terprises of  fierce  and  hardy  daring ;  and  would 
almost  welcome  any  calamity  or  personal  suffering 
that  made  its  fulfilment  seem  more  near.  The  He- 
rodian,  finding  security  only  in  a  strong' government 
at  home,  and  seeing  but  too  clearly  the  impregnable 
strength  of  Rome,  would  pretend  that  in  the  brilliant 
and  sagacious  rule  of  Herod  it  had  all  the  fulfilment 
the  time  made  possible.  The  cautious  and  sceptic 
Sadducee  would  treat  it  as  a  popular  delusion,  and 
regard  the  fancies  bound  up  in  it  as  an  heretical 
fable,  with  no  foundation  in  the  books  he  counted 
holy.  The  Pharisee  would  secretly  indulge  the  hope, 
develop  it  into  doctrine,  expand  and  inculcate  it  as  a 

*  Chap.  vii.  13,  14.  t  Deuteronomy  xviii.  15. 


THE  ESSENES.  399 

popular  creed  ;  but  in  his  place  of  power  and  advan- 
tage would  shrink  from  the  practical  result  it  led  to, 
and  challenge,  with  a  jealous  fear  and  brooding  hate, 
the  claim  of  any  who  should  win  too  warm  tokens  of 
the  popular  zeal. 

One  small  sect,  or  religious  Order,  among  the  Jews 
was  better  prepared  to  interpret  the  national  hope  in 
its  purely  religious  sense.  The  Essenes  were  a 
community  numbering  in  all  some  four  thousand. 
Keeping  remote  from  the  corruption  of  great  towns, 
they  dwelt  mostly  in  the  wild  country  near  the 
Dead  Sea,  some  in  solitary  places,  some  in  the  small- 
er villages.  If  they  took  any  share  at  all  in  the 
national  observances,  it  was  to  protest  against  the 
bloody  sacrifice  and  the  ritual  formalism.  By  peni- 
tence and  prayer,  by  pious  austerities  and  humble 
labour,  it  was  their  creed  that  the  favour  of  heaven 
should  be  won.  In  doctrine  they  were  closely  allied 
with  the  Egyptian  mystics,  the  Therapeutae,  of 
whose  name  their  own  is  an  exact  translation,  — 
being  Healers  or  Physicians,  either  in  the  literal  or 
moral  sense.  Their  practice  of  praying  towards 
the  East,  (also  found  in  the  early  Church,)  their 
doctrine  of  angels  and  of  the  Divine  Spirit,  their 
asceticism  and  general  abstinence  from  marriage, 
their  mystic  festival  of  communion,  their  voluntary 
poverty,  and  the  simple  regimen  that  enabled  many 
of  them  to  live  more  than  a  hundred  years,  —  all 
liken  them  to  those  monastics  of  the  Nile.  Of  all 
the  Jews,  their  morality  was  most  simple  and 
austere ;  their  Sabbath  most  strictly  kept ;  their 
doctrine  most  remote  from  ritual  or  tradition  ;  their 


400  THE  MESSIAH. 

reliance  on  Providence  most  implicit,  amounting  to 
a  strict  religious  fatalism  ;  their  faitli  in  a  life  to 
come  most  ardent;  their  temper  most  unshaken 
under  persecution.  Speculation  and  logic,  says 
Philo,  they  leave  to  word-hunters  ;  their  study  is 
holiness,  justice,  and  love.  Oaths  they  refrained 
from,  except  the  sacred  vow  of  their  Order,  not  to 
divulge  their  sacred  books  or  the  mysterious  names  of 
the  angels.  A  long  probation  was  exacted,  through 
three  preliminary  grades,  before  the  candidate 
could  be  initiated  in  the  interior  or  highest  circle. 
Whatever  secret  doctrine  or  practice  may  have 
been  taught,  it  was  their  religion  outwardly  to  heal 
the  sick,  support  the  weak,  and  venerate  the  old. 
Frugal  and  benevolent,  they  refused  all  use  of 
money,  subsisting  on  the  scanty  product  of  their 
husbandry.  For  as  living  in  a  "  holy  land  "  their 
task  was  agriculture,  instead  of  the  petty  handicrafts 
by  which  the  Egyptian  monastics  throve.  Neither 
wealth,  personal  indulgence,  nor  worldly  honour 
could  be  their  portion,  but  sadly  to  bewail  and 
expiate  their  nation's  sin.  No  evil  would  they 
ascribe  to  God,  neither  would  they  shed  in  sacrifice 
the  blood  of  any  creature.  It  was  a  mystical  and 
symbolic  sacrifice  they  rendered ;  the  body  itself  was 
their  "  sin-offering,"  which  they  might  not  anoint 
with  oil,* — the  prison  of  the  soul,  whose  burden 
they  might  not  augment  by  any  luxury,  or  delight 
of  sense.  Spiritual  gifts  were  the  reward  of  their 
austerities  ;  a  new  line  of  prophets  had  risen  among 

*  Levit.  V.  1 1 .    The  tree  of  life,  according  to  these  mystics,  was  the 
Olive ;  as  the  tree  of  knowledge  was  the  Vine. 


THEORIES  RESPECTING  THE  ESSENES.  401 

them,  dating  as  far  back  as  the  age  of  the  Macca- 
bees ;  and  their  superior  sanctity  was  acknowledged 
among  the  sects  that  now  divided  the  faith  of  Israel. 
Such  was  the  community  or  sect  of  Essenes,  as 
reported  by  writers  of  the  period.  Its  real  history, 
and  especially  its  relation  to  the  great  religious 
revolution  now  impending,  are  matters  of  vague, 
perhaps  hopeless  conjecture.  By  many  a  religious 
affinity  it  seems  allied  with  what  we  know  of  the 
early  Christian  Church,  especially  the  sects  of  Ebion- 
ites  and  Nazarenes  ;  and  the  Catholic  hierarchy  has 
even  been  held  to  be  derived  from  its  religious 
orders.  On  the  other  hand,  the  utter  silence  of  the 
Christian  records,  save  in  a  few  doubtful  allusions,* 
makes  it  quite  impossible  to  trace  the  degrees  of  that 
alliance,  and  leaves  an  unlimited  space  to  theory  and 
guess.  Both  ancient  and  modern  surmise  has  identi- 
fied these  pious  recluses  with  the  first  Jewish  Chris- 
tians. Some  of  the  Greek  fathers  made  their  name  f 
equivalent  to  "  Society  of  Jesus ; "  and,  a  little 
altered, J  it  stands  among  the  earliest  in  the  obscure 
list  of  Christian  heresies.  A  favourite  rationalistic 
hypothesis  has  regarded  Jesus  himself  as  the  con- 
fidential emissary  of  an  "  Essenian  Lodge  ; "  while  a 
more  recent  argument  maintains  that  this  was  a 
secret  society  into  which  the  Christians  of  Palestine 

*  As,  for  example,  the  mode  of  journey  and  voluntary  poverty 
enjoined  on  the  apostles  (Matt.  x.  9) ;  the  doctrine  of  spiritual  aid  and 
guidance  (v.  20)  ;  the  commendation  of  celibacy  (xix.  10 ;  compare 
xxii.  30)  ;  and  discredit  of  riches  (xix.  21,  23) ;  togetherwith  the  cen- 
sure of  the  Pharisees  and  the  temple  service. 

t  'Eo-o-aioi,  or  'leo-craiot.  Epiphanius,  Haeres.  I.  2,  4,  5. 

X  'Oacraloi.  Ibid. 


402  THE    MESSIAH. 

resolved  themselves  a  few  years  before  the  downfall 
of  Jerusalem,  to  shelter  their  doctrine  from  perse- 
cution, or  to  save  it  from  being  overwhelmed  and 
confounded  in  a  political  frenzy.*  The  whole  mat- 
ter remains  one  of  the  riddles  of  history,  —  ever 
tempting  a  solution,  and  still  unsolved. 

In  its  relation  to  the  Christian  doctrine,  what  Ju- 
daism was  to  the  world  this  community  seems  to 
have  been  to  the  other  Jewish  sects. t  As  the  Chris- 
tion  monastic  orders  were  a  "  church  within  the 
Church,"  so  to  these  pious  Hebrews  it  may  have 
been  given  to  guard  the  interior  shrine  of  their  na- 
tion's faith,  from  which  the  new  spirit  should  pro- 
ceed ;  —  "  every  good  gift  and  every  perfect  gift " 
descending,  through  whatever  channel,  from  a  com- 
mon source. 

As  a  little  secluded  sect,  indeed,  they  could  only 
helplessly  deplore  the  fanaticism  and  error  that  had 
clustered  around  the  nation's  hope,  or  the  people's 
sin  that  kept  the  Divine  purpose  from  being  fulfilled, 
—  possibly,  afford  the  soil  out  of  which  a  better  faith 
might  spring,  or  in  which  it  might  be  nurtured.  But 
the  Divine  gift  itself  is  something  quite  aside  from  the 
formula  or  the  mechanism  of  any  sect.  For  any  real 
agency  in  the  coming  "  regeneration,"  they  would 
have  been  as  thoroughly  inefficient  as  the  Alexan- 
drians, but  for  the  inspiration  of  a  more  positive  pur- 
pose, and  the  blending  of  their  ethical  austerity  with 

*  See  De  Quincey,  Historical  and  Critical  Essays,  Vol.  I.  The  deci- 
sive answer  to  which  seems  to  be  the  familiar  mention  of  the  Essenes 
by  Philo,  who  could  hardly  have  written  later  than  A.  D.  50. 

t  See  GfriJrer,  "  Jahrhundert  des  Heils." 


JOHN   THE   BAPTIST.  403 

a  popular  faith.  Compelled  by  their  whole  style  of 
life  and  thought  to  give  the  Messianic  hope  a  mysti- 
cal sense,  —  to  make  the  religious  life  a  "  spiritual 
building,"  and  the  promised  kingdom  a  reign  of  holi- 
ness, —  their  existence  was  an  organized  but  vain 
protest  against  the  wild  and  headlong  frenzy  into 
which  their  countrymen  were  ready  to  be  plunged. 
And  so  it  must  remain  aloof  from  popular  sympa- 
thies, and  powerless  to  any  larger  end,  until  the  ener- 
gies spent  in  holding  this  frail  dike  against  the  tor- 
rent should  be  absorbed  in  the  allegiance  rendered 
to  an  inspired  and  guiding  mind. 

It  is  at  least  plausible  to  associate  with  this  ascetic 
and  devout  community  the  earlier  training,  if  not  the 
particular  commission,  of  that  Forerunner,  who  from 
a  child  "  was  in  the  deserts  until  the  day  of  his  shew- 
ing unto  Israel."  The  water  of  Baptism,  by  which 
according  to  long  custom  aliens  were  admitted  to  re- 
ligious fellowship  with  Jews,  became  the  symbol  of 
the  repentance  preached  by  John.  His  stern  and 
resolute  temper,  unsoftened  during  his  orphan  youth 
by  the  gentle  disciplines  and  sympathies  of  home, 
likened  him  to  the  elder  prophets,  whose  worthy  suc- 
cessor the  popular  reverence  at  once  declared  him. 
His  voice,  crying  in  the  wilderness,  found  a  quick 
response  from  priests  that  served  in  the  temple,  and 
from  the  multitudes  that  thronged  the  banks  of  Jor- 
dan. "  Art  thou  he  that  should  come,"  they  were 
all  ready  to  ask,  "  or  look  we  for  another  ?  "  John 
the  Baptist  was  no  reed  shaken  with  the  wind ;  no 
courtier  clad  in  soft  raiment ;  but  a  man  equal  to  the 
best  and  bravest  of  woman  born ;  one  to  confront  the 


404  THE  MESSIAH. 

crafty  and  sensual  Herod  with  the  open  charge  of 
guilt ;  one  to  forfeit  his  head  in  prison  rather  than 
withhold  or  withdraw  where  conscience  marked  the 
way  ;  a  man  noble  and  dauntless,  yet  of  a  temper  too 
strict  and  narrowly  austere  to  comprehend  the  real 
want  of  the  time.  He  "came  neither  eating  nor 
drinking,  and  men  said.  He  hath  a  devil."  The 
larger  sympathies,  the  profounder  and  gentler  life 
that  marked  the  true  Messiahship,  he  recognized  but 
by  anticipation  and  in  part  in  the  greater  One  that 
followed :  and  long  after  his  death,  a  little  sect  still 
bore  his  name,  and  echoed  his  herald-call  to  repent- 
ance, without  even  asking  whether  the  Hebrew  hope 
was  not  already  fulfilled. 

In  Jesus  of  Nazareth  the  popular  heart  acknowl- 
edged its  rightful  King.  Doubtless  he  shared  those 
patriot  hopes  and  longings,  those  thoughts,  beliefs, 
and  sacred  associations,  that  made  not  only  the  na- 
tional heritage  but  the  public  religious  education  of 
the  Jews.  His  home  and  his  heart  were  among  the 
people.  "  Galilee  of  the  nations  "  was  the  nurse  of 
world-wide  sympathies  and  thoughts,  as  weU  as  centre 
of  the  political  fervour  and  religious  zealotry  that 
survived  so  many  wrecks  and  changes  of  the  state. 
With  a  lingering  and  patriotic  fondness  the  son  of 
Mary  clung  to  the  phrasing  of  those  popular  hopes 
which  his  clearer  foresight  must  renounce,  while  his 
true  Hebrew  sympathy  should  make  them  the  germ 
of  nobler  human  hopes  :  it  is  as  one  sharing  in  the 
nation's  heroic  memories  and  religious  life  that  he 
laments  the  ruin  which  cannot  long  be  stayed  from 
the  beloved  Jerusalem. 


JESUS   OF  NAZARETH.  405 

That  Jesus  himself,  in  his  interior  consciousness, 
was  lifted  to  apprehend  the  dread  and  solitary  grand- 
eur of  his  historic  destiny,  that  he  fully  conceived 
the  true  and  legitimate  hope  of  his  nation  to  be  con- 
summated in  himself,  —  that  hope  created  by  ages 
of  prophecy,  sustained  through  centuries  of  disaster, 
and  now  expanding  to  embrace  the  spiritual  destinies 
of  all  mankind, — is  not  only  the  clear  and  evident 
reading  of  his  life,  it  is  the  one  thing  without  which 
that  life  can  receive  no  intelligible  interpretation. 
Imperatively  disclaiming  the  assumption  of  personal 
merit  or  holiness  as  the  ground  of  his  authority,  he 
as  distinctly  exalts  the  official  dignity  of  the  Messiah- 
ship,  while  asserting  it  for  his  own.  Knowing  well 
the  fate  to  which  it  leads  him,  and  that  the  Son  of 
Man  must  be  made  "  perfect  through  suffering,"  he 
never  once  abates  that  claim  or  wavers  in  it.  The 
heavenly  omens  of  his  nativity,  and  a  childhood 
watched  by  fond,  motherly  hopes,  had  nurtured  this 
overwhelming  conviction  of  his  vocation  and  destiny, 
as  Son  of  God  and  Deliverer  of  his  people,  which 
made  so  thoroughly  a  part  of  his  maturer  manhood.* 
That  if  he  chose  he  might  even  have  been  such  a 
Deliverer  as  they  madly  looked  for,  he  seems  to  have 

*  The  struggle  by  which  the  popular  Jewish  hope  was  transformed 
in  him  into  a  purely  spiritual  purpose  is  shown  symbolically  in  the 
scene  of  the  Temptation,  which  is  the  Messianic  encounter  with  the 
Adversary  of  Israel ;  as  the  celestial  sense  in  which  the  ancient  He- 
brew faith  was  reproduced  is  symbolized  in  the  Vision  that  shows  him 
transfigured  upon  the  mount  with  Moses  and  Elias. 

Again,  what  an  appeal  to  the  national  memories  of  the  Jew,  recalling 
the  pastoral  youth  of  David  and  traditions  of  Jacob  and  Moses,  lay  in 
the  story  of  the  Messiah's  birth  among  the  shepherds  of  Bethlehem  ! 

The  "Visit  of  the  Wise  Men"  may  have  some  connection  (obscured 


406  THE  MESSIAH. 

believed,  and  hinted  more  than  once,  especially  to- 
wards the  mournful  close  of  his  ministry.  And  it 
was  a  clear  and  voluntary  and  noble  sacrifice  in 
which  he  laid  down  his  life  as  the  price  of  that 
"  atonement "  in  which  the  heart  of  man  should  be 
reconciled  to  the  truth  and  providence  of  the  Father. 
Yet  we  may  easily  believe  it  to  have  been  —  as  we 
find  it  in  fact  —  with  a  certain  reluctance  and  misgiv- 
ing that  Jesus  first  directed  the  Messianic  expecta- 
tions of  the  people  upon  himself.  He  forbore  to 
stimulate  in  them  what  was  at  best  a  false  and  vin- 
dictive, and  what  proved  a  bitterly  pernicious  and 
fatal,  hope.  When  they  would  "  take  him  by  force 
and  make  him  a  king,"  he  withdrew  to  the  solitude 
of  mountain  or  wilderness  ;  he  stilled  the  insane  or 
eager  clamour  of  demoniacs,  or  the  grateful  homage 
of  those  he  healed  of  hopeless  malady,  by  command- 
ing "  that  they  should  not  make  him  known."  But 
the  hope  was  firmly  embedded  in  the  religious  life 
and  language  of  the  day.  It  could  not  be  contra- 
dicted or  evaded  :  it  might  perhaps  receive  a  higher 
and  juster  interpretation.  The  phrase  "  kingdom  of 
heaven"  he  set  himself,  therefore,  steadily  to  dis- 
engage from  all  the  vindictive  and  fantastic  images 
of  Jewish  fancy ;  to  make  it  mean  to  others  what  his 
clearer  understanding  and  finer  spiritual  apprehen- 

in  the  present  form  of  narrative)  with  the  school  of  Magi  or  false  proph- 
ets believed  to  have  been  established  in  the  East  by  Balaam,  the 
"Archimage;"  who,  recognizing  by  magical  arts  the  star  of  Jacob, 
predicted  by  their  founder  (Numbers  xxiv.  17.  See  p.  65),  had  near- 
ly compassed  the  Messiah's  death  in  his  cradle.  (Gfrorer.)  In  the  Tal- 
mud, Jesus  (son  of  Mary  Magdalen)  is  a  great  magician  and  wonder- 
worker, who  has  stolen  his  magic  formula  from  Egypt. 


MINISTRY   OF  JESUS.  407 

sion  discerned  in  it ;  to  sketch,  as  it  were,  its  bound- 
aries in  the  realm  of  the  moral  life.  When  one 
asks  him  if  the  kingdom  shall  immediately  appear, 
he  answers  by  saying  that  it  comes  not  with  observa- 
tion ;  that  men  cannot  say,  Lo  here !  or  Lo  there ! 
for  it  is  within.  It  is  for  the  meek,  the  merciful,  the 
peacemakers,  the  poor  in  spirit,  the  pure  in  heart. 
It  is  like  leaven,  like  seed  sown  in  a  field,  like  a  hid- 
den pearl,  like  the  impartial  wages  of  labourers  in  a 
vineyard,  like  the  return  for  a  faithful  use  of  money, 
like  a  marriage  feast  open  by  proclamation  to  all 
that  are  worthy  and  willing  to  enter,  —  like  anything 
rather  than  what  they  hoped  and  craved.  Whatever 
of  the  images  or  notions  more  familiar  to  the  popular 
conception  are  adopted  in  his  discourse,  they  are  sub- 
dued to  that  main  purpose,  they  but  bridge  tlie  in- 
terval between  the  common  thought  and  his.*  In 
numberless  ways  he  set  himself  thus  to  stem  the  swift 
and  turbulent  stream  of  his  countrymen's  desire,  and 
teach  the  true  meaning  of  the  hope  of  Israel. 

His  own  name  he  would  not  at  first  suffer  to  be 
used  in  too  near  connection  with  that  hope,  or  an- 
nounced as  the  Messiah  of  the  coming  kingdom ; 
yet  assured  as  he  was  that  the  true  culmination  and 
completion  of  the  Hebrew  prophetic  history  were 
in  himself,  his  claim  became  by  degrees  more  public 
and  explicit;  and  when  he  distinctly  foresaw  his 
own  death  as  decreed  and  inevitable,  he  no  longer 
scrupled  to  declare,  in  the  most  open  manner,  that 
he  was  the  true  Son  of  God,  the  Prophet  foretold  by 

*  Unless  one  should  except  the  parables  and  discourses   recorded 
about  the  time  of  his  triumphant  entrance  into  Jerusalem. 


408  •  THE    MESSIAH. 

Moses,  the  expected  Man.  His  death,  he  knew,  when 
nothing  else  could  do  it,  would  break  the  spell  of 
that  charmed  thought,  that  false  hope,  which  stim- 
ulated the  worst  passion  of  the  people,  while  it 
fettered  their  best  religious  life.  "  It  was  expedient 
that  he  should  go  away ; "  since  then  and  not  before 
"  another  Comforter "  might  come,  the  spirit  of 
Truth,  and  those  who  believed  in  him  for  his  own 
sake  might  be  guided  to  a  better  apprehension  of  the 
Unseen.  During  his  lifetime  he  could  be  to  them, 
at  best,  only  the  leader  of  a  religious  reform,  the 
sincerest  and  best  of  Jewish  teachers,  the  messenger 
(they  trusted)  of  a  deliverance  daily  and  passion- 
ately longed  for.  It  was  after  his  departure  that 
he  became  to  them  a  spiritual  Presence,  the  living 
manifestation  of  the  Word  of  God,  and  the  Saviour 
of  the  world.  Once  granting  his  Messianic  claim, 
all  the  rest  would  follow  in  time  of  its  own  accord. 

But  early  associations  lost  their  hold  very  slowly. 
To  the  first  generation  of  believers  the  clearest 
notion  of  Christ's  kingdom  seems  to  have  been, 
that  he  would  presently  reappear  "  in  the  clouds  with 
power  and  great  glory  "as  in  the  visions  of  Daniel ; 
and  that  the  dazzling  but  incoherent  imagery  of  the 
Hebrew  dreams  would  yet  be  literally  fulfilled  in 
him.  As  surely  as  he  was  the  true  Messiah  and  the 
hope  of  Israel,  so  surely  his  Messianic  work  on  earth 
was  still  unfinished.  The  vagueness  of  the  Future 
made  good  the  deficiency  and  disappointment  of  the 
Past.  The  historical  lineaments  of  Jesus  were  pieced 
out  with  the  features  of  the  genuine  Hebrew  type  of 
the  Messiah.     These  superadded  features  were  held 


SECOND   COMING   OF   CHRIST.         '  409 

in  reserve  against  the  supposed  immediate  future  ; 
and  were  made  objective  to  the  disciples'  minds  in  the 
angelic  declaration, "  This  same  Jesus,  which  is  taken 
up  from  you  into  heaven,  shall  so  return  in  like  man- 
ner as  ye  have  seen  him  go  into  heaven,"  and  in  the 
apocalyptic  imagery  in  which  his  coming  is  vaguely 
foretold  in  the  doom  impending  over  Israel.  The 
spiritual  office  of  the  Messiah  having  been  dis- 
charged, there  remained  the  temporal,  which  could 
not  be  long  delayed.  Such  was  the  early  hope  of  the 
Jewish  Christians,  certified  to  their  mind  by  the 
resurrection  of  their  Lord.  It  served  a  temporary 
but  most  important  use,  as  a  stay  or  scaffolding  to 
their  imperfect  faith  in  the  spiritualized  and  risen 
Christ,  for  the  space  of  perhaps  a  generation,  —  when 
it  fell,  with  the  utter  ruin  of  the  Jewish  state. 
Then,  and  not  till  then,  Christianity  was  released 
from  the  narrowness  of  Hebrew  forms,  and  became 
an  independent  faith.* 

Meanwhile  two  distinct  influences  were  at  work 
in  the  Church,  to  bring  this  primitive  form  of 
Christian  belief  round  to  that  with  which  we  are 
historically  familiar :  first,  the  practical  demand  of 
the  Christian  organization,  which  continually  thrust 
aside  the  fanatic  anticipation  of  the  future,  in  obe- 
dience to  the  instant  claim  of  the  present,  —  so 
constantly  exhibited  in  the  writings  of  Paul,  com- 
posed during  the  first  generation  of  believers  ;  and, 

*  The  bitterness  with  which  this  change  was  resisted,  and  the  obsti- 
nacy of  the  protest  against  the  Pauline  doctrine,  are  put  in  abundant 
relief  in  some  of  the  early  Petrine  writings,  the  "  Clementines,"  which 
make  Simon  Magus  a  parody,  or  a  mythical  pseudonyme,  of  St.  Paul. 
18 


410  *  THE   MESSIAH. 

secondly,  the  spontaneous  development  of  a  Christian 
philosophy  within  the  Church,  with  the  instinctive 
effort  to  assimilate  its  tone  and  terminology  with  the 
intellectual  habit  of  the  age,  —  so  conspicuous  in 
the  writings  of  the  second  generation,  especially  in 
those  ascribed  to  John.  Hence  the  gentle  and  (as  it 
were)  unconscious  transition  from  the  style  of  repre- 
sentation found  in  the  first  three  Evangelists  to  that 
given  in  the  fourth ;  as  afterwards,  in  successive 
phases,  in  the  later  Alexandrian  schools,  —  by  Clem- 
ent in  the  second  century,  Sabellius  in  the  third,  and 
Athanasius  in  the  fourth.  Thus  the  Church  doctrine 
was  gradually  brought  into  a  shape  to  match  the 
most  arrogant  forms  of  Gentile  philosophy,  though 
without  yielding  the  point  of  generic  difference 
which  makes  one  a  subtile  scheme  for  the  under- 
standing, and  the  other  a  religion  profoundly  practi- 
cal in  the  life.  The  Christology  of  the  second  and 
third  centuries  was  run  easily  into  the  mould  pre- 
pared for  it  by  the  entire  development  of  Greek 
and  Oriental  thought,  —  from  which  it  was  taken, 
almost  without  a  flaw,  by  the  Nicaean  Council,  in  the 
form  at  once  adopted  by  the  Latin  Church. 

By  these  stages  of  transition,  and  in  strict  accord- 
ance with  historical  conditions  already  found  for  it, 
the  Hebrew  Messianic  hope  was  transformed  into  a 
doctrine  which  has  had  perhaps  a  profounder  influ- 
ence on  human  life  and  thought  than  every  other, 
—  the  doctrine,  namely,  that  God  did  descend  upon 
earth  and  dwell  among  men  in  the  person  of  Jesus 
of  Nazareth ;  whose  word  was  the  authoritative  found- 
ation of  belief,  and  his  death  the  literal  sacrifice  for 


THE   CHRISTIAN  CHURCH.  '  411 

the  world's  salvation.  The  religious  need  of  the  time 
was  satisfied  by  a  faith  embracing  these  conditions : 
that  it  was  faith  in  a  divine  Person,  whom  an  increas- 
ing reverence  identified  at  length  with  the  Supreme 
Being  himself ;  that  it  was  engrafted  on  a  tradition, 
conceived  according  to  a  pre-existing  type,  and  made 
part  of  an  already  living  faith ;  and  that  it  was  finally 
cast  in  a  form  that  harmonized  it  with  the  religious 
speculations  of  the  cultivated  world. 

Still  further,  this  faith  became  the  centre  and 
raUying-point  of  a  powerful  organization  of  the  re- 
ligious life.  The  Church  polity,  first  inherited  fi*om 
the  Hebrew  synagogue,  and  borrowing  many  a  feature 
from  Jewish  models,  became  the  regulating  power 
of  men's  religious  life  and  discipline.  It  grew  in 
time  to  be  the  nucleus  of  a  powerful  hierarchy,  that 
for  a  thousand  years  guided  the  destinies  of  civiliza- 
tion. It  formed  the  bridge  across  the  dark  gulf  of  bar- 
barism between  the  empire  of  Rome  and  the  states 
of  Christian  Europe.  Not  only  the  customs  of  the 
Synagogue,  but  the  elaborate  order  of  the  Jewish 
Priesthood,  was  adopted  in  the  Christian  Church.* 
Thus  the  new  religion  allied  itself  with  the  still 
powerful  traditions  and  institutions  of  antiquity ;  and 
the  ecclesiastical  foundation  borrowed  from  Judaea 
sustained  a  structure,  aptly  enough  termed  Cath- 
olic, in  which  Etruscan  ritual  and  Roman  discipline, 
blended  with  a  philosophy  wrought  out  by  Grecian 
intellect,  gave  new  and  powerful  embodiment  to  the 
faith  of  Galilee. 

*  For  the  impulse  given  to  the  growth  of  the  hierarchy  by  the  throng- 
ing of  the  Jewish  Christians  to  Rome,  after  the  destruction  of  Jerusa- 
lem, see  Gfrorer,  Eccl.  Hist.,  Vol.  I.  pp.  253-277. 


412  THE  MESSIAH. 

So  fruitful  and  profound,  in  its  influence  on  the 
after  destinies  of  mankind,  beyond  every  other  ele- 
ment of  antiquity,  was  this  final  form  taken  by  the 
old  Hebrew  faith.  Historically  regarded,  Jesus  is 
uplifted  on  the  great  wave  formed  by  the  confluence 
of  three  main  courses  of  ancient  life  and  thought,  — 
the  Hebrew,  Oriental,  and  Greek,  —  all  embraced  in 
the  imperial  sway  of  Rome.  His  life,  as  the  fulfilment 
of  Hebrew  Messianic  prophecy,  becomes  the  central 
and  pivotal  fact  in  the  annals  of  mankind.  However 
it  be  interpreted,  the  doctrine  of  the  Church  remains, 
that  in  it  met  all  the  separate  threads  of  human  de- 
velopment :  so  that,  religiously  regarded,  it  becomes 
the  great  revelation  of  God  in  human  life ;  and,  his- 
torically, the  isthmus  of  two  great  continents,  —  the 
connecting  link  between  the  ancient  and  modern 
world. 


The  historical  significance  of  the  Hebrew  race  and 
faith  is  therefore  now  exhausted.  It  becomes  an  un- 
distinguishable  element  in  a  structure  far  more  rich, 
various,  and  comprehensive.  The  history  has  hence- 
forth only  the  dreary  and  tragic  interest  that  attends 
the  catastrophe  of  a  people's  life.  For  a  few  years, 
by  favour  of  Caligula,  Herod  Agrippa,  grandson 
of  Mariamne,  was  king  of  united  Palestine  (A.  D. 
37-44).  From  the  crazy  young  despot,  whose  inti- 
mate companion  he  had  been  in  the  vices  and  pleas- 
ures of  the  capital,  he  won  for  his  people  the  re- 
peal of  an  edict  to  worship  the  emperor's  statue,  and 
so  deferred  a  little  longer  the  last  struggle  of  the 


HEROD  AGRIPPA.  —  ROMAN   GOVERNORS.  413 

Jews'  despair.  Though  sensual  and  vainglorious, 
and  prompt  to  lift  his  hand  in  persecution  of  the 
Church,  he  inherited  enough  of  Hebrew  feeling  along 
with  his  Maccabaean  blood  to  make  his  reign  a  time 
of  general  contentment  and  prosperity,  until  his  sud- 
den death  in  Caesarea,*  when  the  line  of  Roman 
governors  returned,  and  violence  began  anew. 

The  revolt  of  Theudas  was  provoked  by  the  rigor- 
ous policy  of  Cuspius  Fadus,  which  offered  too  sharp 
a  contrast  to  tlie  indolent  indulgence  of  Agrippa 
(A.  D.  44).  Theudas  was  one  of  the  "false  Christs 
and  false  prophets,"  who  from  this  time  forth  arose  to 
deceive  many.  Promising  his  followers  a  miraculous 
passage  of  the  Jordan  and  certain  victory,  he  was  sur- 
prised by  a  company  of  soldiers,  and  beheaded.  Some 
relics  of  old  sedition  were  rooted  out  also  by  Tiberius 
Alexander,  —  an  apostate  Jew,  nephew  of  the  Alex- 
andrian Philo,  —  the  patriot  sect  of  Galilaeans  begin- 
ning (it  appears)  to  be  formidable  once  more.  Under 
his  successor,  Cumanus,  a  systematic  course  of  insult 
to  the  Jewish  faith,  aggravated  by  a  quarrel  at  the 
Passover,  and  the  "  accidental "  death  of  some  twenty 
thousand,  led  towards  the  last  desperate  revolt.  Cu- 
manus fell  into  disgrace  by  his  misconduct  in  a  revival 
of  the  old  feud  between  Samaritans  and  Jews ;  and 
the  freedman  Felix,  "  husband  of  three  queens,"  ruled 
for  nine  years,  with  "  the  authority  of  a  king  and  the 
disposition  of  a  slave  "  (A.  D.  52  -  61).  "  The  afiairs 
of  the  Jews  now  grew  worse  and  worse  continually  ; 
again  the  country  was  filled  with  robbers  and  impos- 
tors,  who  led   the   multitude   astray."     Patriotism, 

*  See  Acts  xii.  21-25. 


414  THE  MESSIAH. 

now  in  its  last  extremity,  took  the  form  of  an  or- 
ganized conspiracy.  Bands  of  Sicarii,  or  secret  and 
pledged  Assassins,  made  an  invisible  Committee  of 
Public  Safety,  and  by  a  system  of  Terrorism  headed 
the  popular  hate  towards  Rome.  Daily  executions 
did  not  stay  the  course  of  public  disorder.  An  ad- 
venturer from  Egypt  led  four  thousand  men  *  into 
the  wilderness,  and  then  escaped,  leaving  them  a 
prey  to  Roman  vengeance.  Feuds  between  Jew  and 
Gentile  grew  more  bitter,  until  Felix  too  was  recalled. 
Festus  died  in  office,  too  soon  to  achieve  the  reconcil- 
iation he  sought.  Under  Albinus,  matters  fast  grew 
worse.  Besides  old  complaints,  there  were  now  mis- 
erable contentions  and  oppressions  among  the  priest- 
hood, of  whom  the  lower  orders  most  likely  shared 
too  deeply  in  the  dangerous  temper  of  the  populace. 
Many  of  the  inferior  Levites,  it  is  said,  actually  per- 
ished of  destitution,  their  superiors  withholding  their 
slender  benefices.  The  people  were  clamorous  at  the 
loss  of  civil  rights,  the  result  of  bloody  riots  in  Caesa- 
rea ;  and  troops  of  robbers  were  set  loose  by  Albinus, 
out  of  recklessness  or  else  revenge,  when  the  general 
complaint  got  him  removed  from  Palestine.  So  all 
was  ripening  for  the  great  revolt. 

The  last  envoy  whom  Nero  sent  to  vex  the  rebel- 
lious province  was  Floras  (A.  D.  64),  a  man  so 
meanly  and  sordidly  rapacious,  that  some  carried  a 
basket,  asking  "  alms  for  the  beggar  ; "  and  the  crowd 
insulted  him  openly  in  the  streets  by  name,  hate 
casting  out  fear.  He  took  a  malignant  delight  in 
exasperating  the  popular  passion  that  should  give 

♦  Or  thirty  thousand,  says  Josephus. 


FLORUS.  —  KING  AGRIPPA.  415 

ampler  sweep  to  Roman  revenge,  which  his  soldiers 
seconded  by  studious  mockery  of  the  Jewish  ritual.* 
With  ostentatious  contempt  and  cruelty,  he  mocked 
the  embassies  of  peace  sent  him  by  the  city,  and 
made  their  humble  remonstrance  the  occasion  of  fresh 
massacres.  When  Agrippa  and  his  sister  Bernice, 
son  and  daughter  of  the  late  king,  besought  him 
mercy,  he  answered  by  the  scourging  and  beheading 
of  their  countrymen  before  their  very  eyes.  Agrippa, 
the  last  inheritor  of  Jewish  royal  blood,  —  endowed 
by  the  Romans  with  the  regal  title,  and  an  outlying 
district  of  territory  as  well  as  the  protectorate  of  the 
"  holy  places,"  —  staked  all  his  popularity  in  a  last 
eloquent  but  fruitless  appeal  to  the  citizens,  whom 
tyranny  had  driven  frantic.  They  listened  patiently 
as  he  represented  the  overwhelming  force  of  Rome 
and  the  hopelessness  of  revolt,  till  he  spoke  of  sub- 
mission for  the  time  to  Floras ;  when  at  that  name 
his  voice  was  drowned  in  the  angry  clamour.  Forced 
to  withdraw,  he  left  the  misruled  and  misguided  city 
to  its  fate. 

Though  some  were  still  for  compromise,  and  fol- 
lowed Agrippa's  counsel  to  observe  the  forms  of  cus- 
tomary homage,  yet  the  bolder  party  suddenly  found 
themselves  in  power.  They  ventured  the  decisive 
step  of  refusing  the  customary  sacrifice  in  Caesar's 
name,  thus  renouncing  their  allegiance  in  the  most 
offensive  way  possible.  They  sent  and  surprised  the 
garrison  at  Masada,  which  was  Herod's  stronghold  in 

*  Especially  by  mimicking  the  sacrifice  of  a  sparrow  for  leprosy, 
an  insult  calling  to  mind  the  old  tradition  of  the  uncleanness  of  the 
race. 


416  THE  MESSIAH. 

extremity,  near  the  Dead  Sea ;  and  by  an  unhoped- 
for success,  inspiring  a  fatal  confidence,  they  routed 
the  provincial  forces  of  Gallus,  who  had  nearly  taken 
possession  of  Jerusalem.  Even  the  more  cautious 
now  saw  that  the  hope  of  peace  was  past.  Unless 
open  traitors,  they  must  win  by  the  sword  any  future 
terms  of  safety.  Ananus  the  high-priest  became  pro- 
visional Dictator.  The  city  was  strongly  fortified, 
the  country  divided  into  military  districts.  Galilee 
—  the  most  strongly  intrenched  in  natural  defences 
and  the  vehement  patriotism  of  its  people  —  must 
expect  the  first  brunt  of  attack.  Its  governor  and 
chief-captain  was  Josephus  the  historian,  a  man  now 
thirty  years  of  age.  He  had  belonged  to  the  peace 
party  hitherto,  and  after  one  campaign  he  surren- 
dered, and  sided  again  heartily  with  the  Romans, 
testifying  no  small  animosity  against  the  new  chiefs 
of  the  sedition.  But  for  once  he  showed  himself  a 
skilful  and  bold  commander.  The  two  months'  siege 
of  Jotapata  exhausted  the  resources  of  Jewish  inge- 
imity,  backed  by  an  unconquerable  hate :  its  fall, 
soon  followed  by  that  of  Tiberias  and  Gamala,  sealed 
the  doom  of  all  Palestine. 

The  revolt  had  been  found  so  serious  that  Vespa- 
sian, the  ablest  general  of  the  empire,  was  sent  to 
quell  it  with  an  army  of  sixty  thousand  men,  —  such 
a  force  as  Rome  had  employed  only  against  the  most 
powerful  kingdoms.  The  life  had  to  be  crushed  from 
the  ill-fated  province  drop  by  drop ;  and  at  so  for- 
midable cost  that  Vespasian  fell  back,  to  let  dissen- 
sion and  famine  do  his  work,  rather  than  assault 
the  walls  and  towers  of  Jerusalem.     The  two  years' 


SIEGE   OF  JERUSALEM.  417 

partial  respite  given  by  the  disorders  at  Rome  that 
followed  the  death  of  Nero  were  employed  by  the 
Romans  in  securing  the  remoter  districts ;  by  the 
Jewish  chiefs  only  in  bitter  strife  among  themselves, 
and  wanton  ravage,  that  made  the  defence  more 
hopeless.  When  Yespasian,  now  emperor,  sent  his 
son  Titus  to  the  siege,  the  temple,  the  sacred  court, 
and  the  city  were  held  each  as  a  separate  fortress  by 
three  armed  factions,  each  at  deadly  war  with  both 
the  others,  uniting  only  to  cut  off  the  last  hope  of 
peace  by  the  massacre  of  the  priestly  body.  Only  in 
the  utmost  peril  was  party  hate  changed  to  emulous 
boldness,  in  manning  the  breach  or  fighting  in  the 
trenches. 

Throughout  the  siege,  the  sacrifice  at  the  great 
altar  went  on  daily  undisturbed,  amidst  the  terrible 
storm  of  engines,  and  in  courts  that  flowed  with  the 
blood  of  victim,  priest,  and  worshipper,  in  a  common 
stream.  Starving  wretches  that  crept  out  to  pluck 
roots  and  weeds  were  forced  back  or  slain ;  if  they  had 
gathered  anything,  it  was  snatched  from  them  by 
violence ;  or,  escaping  to  the  camp,  some  were  torn 
open  by  the  savage  Arabs  to  hunt  for  gold  and  jewels 
they  had  swallowed,  others  crucified  by  Titus,  as 
many  as  five  hundred  in  a  day,  till  "there  was  no 
wood  for  the  crosses,  or  space  to  plant  them."  The 
glens  below  were  rank  with  unburied  corpses,  hurled 
from  the  walls,  —  a  horrible  but  needful  order  of  the 
military  police.  A  mother,  driven  crazy  by  the  bar- 
barity of  the  plunderers  and  the  rage  of  famine, 
killed  and  devoured  her  own  child  "  secretly,  for 
her  utter  want."     Every  tree  within  twelve  miles  of 

18*  "  AA 


418  THE  MESSIAH. 

Jerusalem  was  cut  down  for  military  engines,  and 
not  an  olive,  say  the  Jews,  was  left  in  all  the  land. 

Starvation,  murder,  pestilence,  torture,  assault,  — 
all  were  endured  for  a  ghastly  period  of  eight  months, 
and  still  the  Zealot  faction  would  not  yield.  To  the 
last  they  looked  for  that  "  sign  from  heaven  "  which, 
when  the  measure  of  calamity  was  full,  should  bring 
victory  and  revenge.  It  was  treason  as  well  as  in- 
fidelity to  despair  of  the  altar  and  holy  city. 

At  length*  the  walls  were  broken  down,  the  strong 
towers  seized  or  undermined,  the  streets  filled  with 
the  slaughter  of  the  populace,  the  temple  set  on  fire 
in  the  blind  fury  of  the  soldiery.  Jerusalem  was  no 
more.  A  ploughshare  was  passed  over  the  founda- 
tion. The  site  of  city  and  sanctuary  was  sown  with 
salt.  Such  sacred  vessels  as  escaped  the  flames  were 
brought  to  Rome  by  Titus,  where  their  mouldering 
forms  still  decorate  his  arch  of  triumph.  A  hundred 
thousand  captives  were  sent  to  the  slave  market  or 
amphitheatre ;  and  for  every  captive,  more  than 
fifteen  are  said  to  have  perished  in  the  war, — 
upwards  of  a  million  in  Jerusalem  alone.  All 
Palestine  was  set  to  sale  by  Vespasian.  The  two 
shekels  of  temple-money  paid  by  every  Hebrew  man 
must  go  to  rebuild  the  shrine  of  Jupiter  of  the 
Capitol ;  and  no  Jew  might  visit  the  sacred  ruins  on 
pain  of  death. 

Of  the  Zealots,  some  fled  to  the  strong  fortress 
Masada,  where,  after  a  short  resistance,  they  set  fire 
to  the  tower,  and  perished  with  their  families  in  the 
flames ;  some   made   their   way  to   Alexandria   and 

*  October,  A.  D.  70. 


DISPERSION   OF   THE  JEWS.  419 

Gyrene,  with  the  vain  hope  of  holding  out  the 
contest  a  little  longer  ;  but  most  were  slaughtered 
with  their  chiefs,  —  even  women  and  children  smiling 
in  the  midst  of  torture,  and  defying  the  Gentile 
conqueror  with  their  indomitable  faith.  Such  as 
had  taken  no  share  in  the  great  rebellion,  together 
with  the  little  sect  of  Ghristians,*  still  remained  in 
possession  of  the  villages  ;  and  when  the  storm  of 
war  was  blown  past,  remained  there  unmolested. 
The  Sanhedrim,  through  its  ten  "  Sittings "  from 
place  to  place,  like  the  Ark  at  the  ruin  of  the  first 
temple,  lost  little  of  its  former  dignity  or  authority. 
The  line  of  Rabbins  was  continued  in  Tiberias  for 
many  years,  under  the  "  Patriarch  of  the  West," 
who  still  held  spiritual  headship  over  a  dispersed  and 
exiled  nation.  In  touching  memorial  of  the  desola- 
tion, an  ornament  of  turrets  and  battlements,  called 
the  "golden  city,"  was  worn  by  Jewish  women  as  a 
head-dress,  in  mourning  for  Jerusalem,  —  perhaps  as 
a  pledge  that  it  should  be  restored. 

Such  was  the  issue  of  the  false  and  fatal  hope 
which  had  grown  out  of  the  Divine  promise  of  the 
Messiah.  After  many  transmutations,  it  came  at 
last  to  be  a  mere  political  frenzy.  The  tendencies 
that  might  have  held  it  in  check  were  drawn  away 
by  the  Christian  society.  To  the  loyal  Jew,  of  what- 
ever sect,  there  was  left  no  hope  but  in  the  uide- 
pendence  of  his  native  land.  Nothing  but  a  pow- 
erful fanaticism  could  have  sustained  the  audacity 
of  that  hope.     "  Even  the  most  peaceful  mystic,  who 

*  Ebionites  or  Nazarenes,  including,  as  is  probable,  the  relics  of  the 


420  THE  MESSIAH. 

expected  from  his  Adam-Logos  the  renewal  of  Para- 
dise, still  had  in  his  eye  the  fall  of  the  Roman  power. 
There  was  the  particular  grief  that  touched  them  all. 
But  how  resist  the  arms  of  Rome  ?  What  a  distance 
between  the  legions  of  the  world-empress  and  the 
petty  forces  of  a  population  of  some  few  millions, 
crowded  in  a  corner  of  Asia !  The  Jewish  scribes 
and  Levites  had  in  the  Sanhedrim,  almost  to  the 
outbreak  of  the  war,  a  certain  share  of  administra- 
tion in  state  affairs.  Political  power  has  always 
been  the  school  of  political  wisdom.  One  can  never 
better  learn  men  than  in  ruling  them.  May  there 
not  have  been  among  these  Jews  in  power  some  who 
saw  that  the  Messianic  hopes  of  their  nation  rested 
on  a  groundless  fantasy,  and  pointed  to  an  impossi- 
bility? Certainly  there  were  such.  Not  only  the 
records  of  their  faith,  but  the  history  itself  shows  it. 
These  priests  would  play  the  city  and  sanctu- 
ary into  the  hands  of  the  Romans,  to  save  both ;  for 
they  despaired  of  the  future  issue  of  the  war.  They 
hoped  not  at  all,  at  least  not  heartily,  in  the  future. 
Still  they  helped  to  spread  the  delusion  among  their 
people.  Doubtless  it  was  to  save  the  nationality, 
more  and  more  menaced  by  Rome,  the  devourer  of 
nations,  and  to  hold  up  in  terror  em  to  the  successors 
of  Caesar  the  fiercely  kindled  popular  hope.  But,  as 
is  so  often  the  case  with  a  priesthood,  they  did  not 
themselves  believe  in  what  they  preached.  When 
the  storm  broke  forth,  and  their  great  possession  was 
in  peril,  they  fell  back  like  cowards.  Hence  the 
sword  of  the  determined  Zealots  justly  struck  their 
guilty  heads.     One  should  not  play  with  a  nation's 


DEFEAT   OF   THE  MESSIANIC  HOPE.  421 

enthusiasm !  The  division  between  chiefs  and  priest- 
hood inflicted  the  heaviest  damage  on  the  Jews,  and 
most  contributed  to  the  fatal  result  of  the  war.  Had 
the  Levites  and  their  adherents  thrown  their  whole 
weight  into  the  scale,  to  recognize  a  bold  warrior 
from  the  popular  ranks  as  the  Messiah,  all  would 
have  submitted  to  him,  and  the  chosen  one  might 
have  carried  the  united  strength  of  the  nation 
against  the  foreign  foe,  —  instead  of  as  many  Mes- 
siahs rising  up  as  there  were  ambitious  leaders,  who 
conflicted  with  each  other  to  the  greatest  injury  of 
all,  adding  the  miseries  of  internal  feud  to  those 
of  foreign  war.  Had  the  Jews  under  Yespasian 
acted  with  the  same  united  energy  as  in  the  revolt 
under  Hadrian,  the  struggle  would  have  been  a 
formidable  one  ;  and  their  Messiah  might  perhaps 
have  been  for  imperial  what  Hannibal  was  for  con- 
sular Rome."  * 

After  the  thorough  and  systematic  uprooting  by 
Yespasian,  there  was  no  more  a  visible  centre  and 
home  of  the  Jewish  nationality ;  yet  in  its  several 
dispersions  or  "  captivities  "  the  scattered  Israel  re- 
tained something  of  the  same  slumbering  fire.  Be- 
fore the  dreadful  tempest  swept  over  Judah,  like  dis- 
aster had  befallen  the  colonists  in  Babylonia  and 
Egypt.f    In  B-ome,  in  Cyrene,  in  Antioch,  there  were 

*  Gfrorer,  "  Jahrhundert  des  Heils,"  Vol.  11.  pp.  439-441. 

t  The  recorded  massacres  of  the  Jews  at  the  commencement  of  the 
wars  were,  in  Babylon,  50,000,  in  Alexandria,  50,000,  in  Csesarea, 
20.000,  in  Ascalon,  2,500,  in  Ptolemais,  2,000,  in  Scythopolis,  13,000, 
in  Damascus,  10,000,  besides  that  of  their  chief  men  in  Tyre,  Hippo, 
and  Gadara,  and  of  uncertain  numbers  in  other  Syrian  towns. 


422  THE  MESSIAH. 

but  various  degrees  of  the  same  wanton  cruelty.  And 
long  after  Jerusalem  was  desolate,  "  so  that  one  would 
not  even  know  where  its  forts  and  walls  had  been,'* 
flashes  of  desperate  resistance  broke  forth,  such  as  to 
renew  the  ancient  terror  of  the  Hebrew  name. 

The  policy  of  Trajan,  statesmanly  and  severe,  was 
to  guard  well  the  boundaries  of  the  empire,  —  now 
beginning  to  be  seriously  threatened  by  barbarians,  — 
and  reduce  it  at  home  more  thoroughly  to  a  uniform 
central  rule.  Provoked  by  fresh  cruelties,  and  a  con- 
flict in  which,  it  is  said,  every  Jew  in  Alexandria 
was  slain,  a  furious  outbreak  took  place  in  Cyrene 
(A.  D.  115).  The  Jews  slaughtered  of  their  fellow- 
colonists  no  less  than  two  hundred  and  twenty  thou- 
sand ;  and,  with  savage  instincts  stimulated  by  the 
fanatic  interpretation  of  old  prophecy,*  devoured  frag- 
ments of  the  flesh,  stained  their  faces  with  the  blood, 
and  wore  the  bleeding  entrails  as  trophies  upon  their 
shoulders.  In  Cyprus  the  slaughter  was  even  greater ; 
and  the  insurrection  was  only  quelled  by  the  destruc- 
tion of  half  a  million  Jews.  These  atrocities  took 
place  just  when  the  Roman  Empire  was  in  its  merid- 
ian splendour,  under,  perhaps,  the  ablest  of  its  rulers, 
in  what  has  been  called  the  golden  period  of  human 
welfare.  Now  it  was  resolved  to  root  out  the  last 
remnant  of  the  invincible  and  hated  faith.  Not  even 
in  case  of  shipwreck  could  a  Jew  set  foot  in  Cyprus, 
on  pain  of  death.  Circumcision,  the  Sabbath  wor- 
ship, and  reading  of  the  Law  were  forbidden ;  and 
a  Roman  colony,  with  a  temple  to  Jupiter,  was  to 
occupy  the  sacred  heights  of  Zion. 

*  Zechariah  ix.  15. 


BAR-COCHAB.  423 

Hadrian,  "by  turns  an  excellent  prince,  a  ridiculous 
sophist,  and  a  jealous  tyrant,"  *  visited  Judaea  in  his 
imperial  journey  of  curiosity  and  reform  (A.  D.  131). 
His  sceptic  temper  was  not  likely  to  respect  the  rem- 
nants of  Jewish  "  superstition  "  still  assiduously  cher- 
ished there,  nor  his  wary  statesmanship  to  overlook 
the  perilous  fanaticism  lurking  under  it.  The  very 
next  year,  the  last  great  revolt  broke  out  with  the 
obstinate  intrepidity  of  despair.  Avoiding  now  too 
late  the  fatal  error  of  the  former  war,  the  sacred 
college  at  Tiberias,  with  Rabbi  Akibah,  their  noblest 
and  saintliest,t  unanimously  recognized  as  Messiah 
the  young  disciple  whose  energy  and  religious  zeal 
placed  him  at  the  head  of  the  insurrection,  —  Simon, 
whose  mystic  title  was  Bar-cochab, "  Son  of  the  Star. "if 
Once  more  the  horrors  of  war  and  religious  persecu- 
tion raged  through  Palestine.  The  unhappy  rem- 
nant of  Jewish  Christians  suffered  miserably  :  —  a 
little  heretic  sect,  scorned  by  Christians  as  still  hold- 
ing Jesus  to  have  been  a  man,  hideously  tortured  by 
fanatic  Jews  as  followers  of  the  Nazarene,  and  con- 
founded by  the  Romans  in  one  ruin  with  their  rebel- 
lious countrymen.  For  a  time  the  sudden  fury  of 
the  storm  swept  everything  before  it.  Bar-cochab 
assumed  the  public  title  of  Prince  of  Judah,  and 
coined  money  bearing  the  device  of  his  Messianic 
reign.     He  even  seized  and  garrisoned  the  capital, 

♦  Gibbon. 

t  His  fame  was  attested  by  no  less  than  24,000  pupils.  "  For  forty 
years  he  had  been  an  illiterate  peasant,  forty  years  he  gave  to  the  study 
of  the  Law,  and  forty  years  he  ministered  to  Israel."  The  accounts  of 
his  death  are  various. 

t  Numbers  xxiv.  17.     See  page  65. 


424  THE  MESSIAH. 

holding  it  for  two  years  against  the  Romans.  It  was 
not  till  (according  to  the  story)  five  hundred  and 
eighty  thousand  had  fallen,  armed  and  fighting, — 
among  them  the  false  Messiah  himself,  and  the  aged 
Akibah,  who  served  as  his  shield-bearer,  —  that  the 
fury  of  the  revolt  was  stayed.*  Jerusalem,  with  the 
title  ^lia  Capitolina,  was  made  a  Roman  town. 
Strange  edifices  crowned  the  sacred  heights,  and  the 
localities  of  ancient  story  were  utterly  lost.  Nothing 
but  the  site  and  name,  the  everlasting  hills  and  the 
Syrian  sky,  remains  to  the  sacred  capital  of  Judah. 

Since  the  last  dispersion,  the  name  of  Israel  is  lost 
to  human  history.  A  scattered  and  long-sufiering 
remnant,  a  people  of  zealous  and  indomitable  faith, 
more  tenacious  than  ever  of  traditions  and  rites  that 
set  them  apart  from  all ;  the  traders  and  slave-mer- 
chants of  Barbaric  times,  outcasts  from  the  Feudal 
System,  first  victims  of  the  Crusades  and  the  Inquisi- 
tion, clinging  still  through  long  centuries  to  the  hope 
that  once  and  again  had  plunged  them  in  so  deep 
disaster,! — they  have  lived  on,  a  singular  and  death- 

*  The  Jews  say  of  the  slaughter  at  Bitter,  the  last  stronghold  of 
Bar-cochab,  that  the  horses  waded  in  blood  up  to  their  nostrils  ;  there 
were  slain  400,000  in  a  day,  and  Hadrian  walled  a  vineyard  of  sixteen 
miles  about  with  dead  bodies  to  a  man's  height ;  the  brains  of  three 
hundred  infants  were  dashed  upon  one  stone,  and  the  torrent  of  blood 
floated  the  bodies  of  the  slain  down  to  the  sea,  a  distance  of  forty 
miles.  Thousands  were  sold,  "  cheap  as  horses,"  under  the  terebinth- 
tree  that  stood  by  Abraham's  tent ;  and  Akibah  (who  at  the  tribunal 
of  the  victor  forgot  not  the  hour  of  prayer)  was  barbarously  flayed 
alive. 

t  Of  many  impostors  assuming  the  title  of  Messiah,  the  last  of  any 
note,  Sabbathai-Sevi,  appeared  in  Smyrna  in  1648,  where  he  figured 
for  eighteen  years.  At  length  he  was  brought  before  the  Sultan,  who, 
in  the  prompt  way  the  Turks  have  of  convincing  infidels,  offered  him 


MODERN  JEWS.  425 

less  monument  of  the  Life  that  had  its  home  of  old 
in  Palestine.  Hate,  persecution,  contempt,  suffered 
from  Christian  and  Mussulman  alike  ;  the  cruelties 
of  sovereign  or  priesthood  safely  spent  on  a  victim 
helpless  and  cursed  already  by  the  popular  odium ; 
the  tortures  of  a  rapacious  exchequer  and  the  tor- 
tures of  a  holy  Inquisition,  —  all  combined  have  not 
been  able  to  destroy  or  alter  this  hidden  stream  of  a 
religious  nationality.  In  its  solitary  channel  it  has 
continued  to  flow  on,  strangely  unaffected  by  events 
that  have  remoulded,  once  and  again,  the  entire 
face  of  the  civilized  world.  Untouched  by  political 
changes,  uncaring  for  Gentile  culture  and  erudition, 
unmingled  in  the  thousand  cross-currents  that  inter- 
sect it,  steadily  and  mysteriously  this  stream  of  a 
people's  life  flows  on.  The  nation  of  Israel  lies,  as  it 
were,  latent  and  diffused  among  the  populations  of 
the  earth,  —  still  known  by  its  visible  marks  of  sep- 
aration, and  still,  to  trust  its  own  declaration,  pre- 
pared, when  the  summons  shall  come,  to  throng  to 
the  banner  of  Judah,  and  see  the  fulfilment  of  its 
ancient  prophecy  in  the  restoring  of  its  dominion 
under  its  long-promised  and  still-expected  Messiah. 

This  also  the  Jews  have  recorded  in  the  peculiar 
manner  of  their  tradition.  When  Rabbi  Akibah,  say 
their  writers,  was  once  passing  with  some  of  his 
scholars  near  the  broken  walls  of  Jerusalem,  they 
saw  a  fox  which  ran  out  from  the  most  holy  place, 

the  choice  of  an  ordeal  of  three  poisoned  arrows,  death,  or  conversion. 
He  discreetly  chose  the  last,  and  became  a  Mussulman ;  but  his  fol- 
lowers, accepting  his  assurance  that  the  Messiah  must  be  "  numbered 
among  the  transgressors,"  clung  to  their  belief  in  him,  which  subsists, 
it  is  said,  in  one  Jewish  sect  even  to  this  day. 


426  THE  MESSIAH. 

and  hid  among  the  ruins ;  and  his  scholars  wept,  but 
Rabbi  Akibah  laughed.  And  they  asked  him,  "  Shall 
we  not  weep  when  we  see  the  desolation  of  the  city, 
and  all  the  calamity  which  our  prophets  have  fore- 
told?" But  he  replied,  "And  shall  I  not  rather 
laugh  when  I  see  these  things  ?  for  while  those  words 
were  not  yet  fulfilled  which  foretold  the  destruction 
of  our  people  and  our  holy  temple,  we  might  doubt 
if  they  came  from  God ;  but  now  we  know  that  they 
are  true,  and  that  the  God  of  Israel  liveth,  and  his 
people  shall  be  redeemed." 


CHEONOLOGICAL  OUTLINE  OF  THE  LATEE  MONAECHY. 


[Ewald's  dates.    Events  marked  f  are  found  only  in  Chronicles.] 


B.C.  Judah.  B  c.  Israel. 

986.  Rehoboam  (17  y.)    Return  of    985.  Jeroboam  (22  y.)  Royal  cities 

Levites.      Shishak's    invasion.  built.     Golden  calvfes,  at  Dan 

Fortified  cities.  and  Bethel. 

968.  Abijam  (3  y.)    t  Disastrous  war  with  Israel. 
965.  Asa  (41  y.)    Reform.    Fortifi-  Ahijah's  warning. 

cations  and  equipments ;  f  army    963.  Nadab  (2  y.)    Murdered  by 

of  580,000.  961.  Baasha  (24  y.) 

"Wars  between  Israel  and  Judah. 

Treasures  sent   to    Damascus.  Attack  of  Syrians.    Ramah  de- 

t  Rout  of  1,000,000  Ethiopians.  serted. 

t  Asa  suppresses  idolatry  in  Israel. 

t  Great  rehgious  festival.  937.  Elah  (2  y.)    Murdered. 

t  Warning  of  Hanani   against    931.  Omri  (12  y.)     Samaria  built. 

Syrian  alliance.  919.  Ahab    (22  y.)     Baal-worship. 

917.  jEHOSHAPHAT(25y.)  Reforms.  [Acts  of  Mijah.]     Siege  of  Sa- 

Peace  with  Ahab.    Viceroy  in  maria  by  Benhadad.    Defeat  of 

Edom.    Commerce,    t  Military  Syrians.    Fresh  invasion,  east 

and  religious  establishment.  of  Jordan. 

Alliance  against  Syrians.    Ahab  slain. 

t  Attack  of  Moab,  etc.,  repulsed    897.  Ahaziah  (2  y.)  Revolt  of  Moab. 

with  great  slaughter.  Killed  by  a  fall. 

893.  Jehoram    (8  y.)      Revolt    of    895.  Jehoram  (12  y.)  Idolatry  sup- 

Moab.   t  Invasion  of  Arabs,  &c.  pressed.     Devastation  of  Moab. 

885.  Ahaziah  (1  y.)    Murdered  by  [Acts  of  Elisha.'] 

883.  Athaliah  (6  y.)    Baal  wor-    883.  Jehu  (28  y.)  Massacres.  Gold- 
ship  established.  en  calves  retained. 

877.  JoASH  (40  y.)  Repairs  of  telnple.  Joash  bribes  Hazael,  who  devas- 
tates Gilead,  &c. 

Dissensions  with  priests.  855.  Jehoahaz  (17  y.)  Deliverance 

t  Murder  of  Zechariah.  from  the  invasion. 

Joash  slain  by  conspiracy.  839.  Jehoash  (16    y.)      Death  of 

837.  Amaziah  (29  y.)    Conquest  of  Elisha.    Invasion  of  Moabites. 

Edom.    t  Army  of  300,000.  Victories  over  Syrians. 


428  CHRONOLOGICAL  OUTLINE. 

Judah.  Israel. 

t  Amaziah  rejects  alliance  of  Israel,  who  smite  3,000  cities. 
Challenges  Jehoash.    Jerusalem  pillaged. 
[Prophecies  of  Joel,  in  time  of  Amaziah.] 
Amaziah  slain  by  conspiracy.       823.  .Jeroboam  II.  (41  y.)    Restores 
808.  UzziAH  (52  y.)  Recovers  Elath.  former  bounds  of  Israel.  Recov- 

t  Victories  over   Arabs,   &c.  ;  ers  Damascus.     [Amos,  Hosea.'] 

tribute  from  Ammon  ;  building    770.  Zachariah    and     Shallum, 
of  towers;  army  307,500.  murdered. 

Dissensions  with  priests.  769.  Menahem  (10  y.)  Barbarities. 

[Visions  and  early  prophecies  Assyrian  invasion  of  Pul. 

of  Isaiah]  759.  PEKAHiAH(2y.)  Murdered  by 

757.  JoTHAM(16y.)  Victories  over    757.  Pekah  (20  y.)    Conquest  of 
Ammonites.    Fortifications.  Galilee  by  Tiglath  Pileser. 

Judah  threatened  by  league  of  Pekah  with  Rezin. 
740.  Ahaz  (16  y.)    Idolatries.     [Messianic  predictions  of /satait.] 
Invasion  of  Pekah  and  Rezin  ;  loss  of  Elath. 
t  120,000  slain;  200,000  captives  restored. 
Ahaz  bribes  Assyrians,  who  invade  Damascus. 
724.  Hezekiah  (29  y.)    Abolishes    728.  Hoshea  (9  y.)     Invasion  of 
idolatry.  Shalmanezer.    Tribute  to  him. 

[Micah.    Prophecies  and  polit-  Conspires  with  Egypt.    Three 

ical  influence  of  Isaiah.]  years'  siege  of  Samaria. 

719.   Captivity  of  Ten  Tribes.     Samaritan  Colony. 

Invasion  of  Judah  by  Sennacherib ;  his  host  destroyed. 

Hezekiah's  sickness.    Embassy  from  Babylon. 

Public  works,     f  Solemn  purification  of  temple. 
695.  Manasseh  (55  y.)     Idolatry  and  persecutions. 

t  Taken  captive  to  Babylon.    His  repentance. 
640.  Amon  (2  y.)    His  idolatry;  death  by  conspiracy. 
638.  JosiAH  (31  y.)    Repair  of  temple.    Finding  of  the  Law. 

Inroad  of  Scythians.    Josiah  slain  at  Megiddo. 

[Zephaniah,  Obadiah,  Hahakkuk,  Jeremiah.'] 
608.  Jehoahaz  (3m.)  dies  a  captive  in  Egypt. 

Jehoiakim  (11  y.)    Tributary  to  Pharaoh.     Conquered  by  Neb- 
uchadnezzar.    Revolts.     Chaldee  invasion. 
597.  Jehoiachin  (3  m.)  taken  to»Babylon  with  10,000  captives. 
596.  Zedekiah    (11   y.)      Revolts.      Invasion  of   Nebuchadnezzar. 

Siege  of  Jerusalem.     [Jeremiah.]    Jerusalem  taken.    Gedaliah 

assassinated.    Flight  of  many  Jews  to  Egypt. 
586  -  636.  The  Captivity  in  Babylon. 


CHRONOLOGICAL   OUTLINE. 


429 


AFTER  THE  CAPTIVITY. 


536. 

516. 
459. 
445. 
366. 
332. 
320. 
300. 


205 

175, 

170, 

166, 
160, 
143 
135 
107 


Edict  of  Cyrus.    Return  of  the 
Jews  from  Babylon. 
Dedication  of  the  Temple. 
Mission  of  Ezra. 
Administration  of  Nehemiah. 
Murder  of  Joshua. 
Alexander  in  Jerusalem. 
Conquest  of  Judaea  by  Ptolemy. 
Administration  of  Simon  the 
Just. 

Joseph  the  Tax-gatherer. 
- 198.  Antiochus  the  Great  in 
Judaea. 

Antiochus  Epiphanes.    Helio- 
dorus. 

Persecutions     of     Antiochus 
Epiphanes. 
Judas  the  Maccabee. 
Jonathan. 
Simon. 

John  Hyrcanus. 
Aristobulus. 


106.  Alexander  Jannseus. 

79.  Alexandra. 

70.  Hyrcanus  and  Aristobulus. 

63.  Jerusalem  taken  by  Pompey 
48.  Administration  of  Antipater 
37  -  4.  Herod  the  Great. 

20  to  A.  D.  50.  Philo  of  Alexandria- 

A.  B. 

6.  Judaea  a  Roman  Province. 
25.  Administration  of  Pontius  Pilate. 
30.  Crucifixion  of  Jesus. 
37  -  44.  Reign  of  Herod  Agrippa. 

64.  Administration  of  Gessius  Flo- 
ras. 

66  Jewish  Revolt. 

68.  Subjugation  of  Galilee. 

70.  Siege  of  Jerusalem  by  Titus. 

115.  Jewish  Revolts  in  Cyrene  and 

Cypras. 
132.  Revolt  under  Bar-Cochab. 
135.  Jerusalem  destroyed. 


INDEX. 


The  Patriarchs,  1-35.  Palestine  and  its  Inhabitants,  1.  Oanaan- 
ites,  6.  Family  of  Shem,  9.  Abraham,  11.  Destruction  of  Sodom,  18. 
Isaac,  21.    Jacob,  23.    Israel  in  Egypt,  31.    The  Hycsos,  32. 

Moses,  36  -  72.  Traditions  of  his  Life,  36.  Egyptian  Bondage,  38.  The 
Exodus,  42.  Passage  of  the  Red  Sea,  45.  Song  of  Moses,  46.  Sinai,  49. 
Laws  of  Moses,  50.  The  Wandering,  60.  Balaam,  64.  Death  of  Moses, 
66.     Conquest  of  Canaan,  67. 

The  Judges,  73-112.  Settlement  of  the  Tribes,  75.  Oracle  of  Jacob, 
78.  Invasions,  83.  Song  of  Deborah,  84.  Gideon,  88.  Jephthah,  89. 
Philistines,  90.  Samson,  92.  Growth  of  National  Spirit,  95.  Eli,  98. 
Samuel,  99.     Schools  of  the  Prophets,  102.     Saul,  105. 

David,  113-144.  Early  History,  115.  Among  the  Philistines,  121. 
At  Hebron,  122.  Ishbosheth,  124.  Conquests,  125.  Household,  130. 
Absalom's  Revolt,  132.     Census  of  Tribes,  136.    Character  of  David,  139. 

Solomon,  145  - 170.  Acts  of  arbitrary  power,  146.  Alliances  and 
Commerce,  149.  Temple  and  Ritual,  151.  Royal  Establishment,  158. 
Wisdom,  160.  Foreign  Religious  Rites,  162.  Oppression,  164.  Jeroboam, 
166.     The  divided  Kingdom,  168. 

The  Kings,  171-207.  First  Period,  172.  Israel  and  Judah,  173.  Proph- 
ets of  Israel,  177.  Elijah  and  Elisha,  179.  Massacres  of  Jehu,  182.  Sec- 
ond Period,  183.  Regency  of  Priests  in  Judah,  184.  Prophets  of  Judah, 
186.  Assyrians,  188.  Fall  of  Samaria,  190.  Hezekiah  and  Isaiah,  191. 
Third  Period,  195.  Manasseh's  Idolatries,  197.  Josiah's  Reform,  200. 
His  Death,  203.    Zedekiah's  Revolt,  205.    Fall  of  Jerusalem,  207. 

The  Law,  208  -  251.  Syrian  Customs  and  Superstitions,  209.  Early 
Condition  of  Hebrews,  219.  Civil  Code,  222.  Ritual,  228.  Festivals,  234. 
Levitical  Institutions,  244.    Priesthood,  246. 

The  Prophets,  252-280.  The  Prophetical  Office,  253.  Religious 
Tendencies  of  the  East,  255.  The  Prophet's  Commission,  257.  False 
Prophets,  261.  Way  of  Life,  263.  Instruction  by  Symbols,  265.  Pro- 
phetical Writings,  268.  Style  of  Thought  and  Doctrine,  272.  Messianic 
Prophecy,  276. 


432 


INDEX. 


The  Captivity,  281  -  310.  The  Jews  in  Babylon,  283.  Colony  of 
Judaea,  289.  Effects  of  the  Captivity,  290-297.  Zerabbabel,  298.  Ezra 
and  Nehemiah,  302.    Alexander  at  Jerusalem,  309. 

The  Maccabees,  311-345.  Grecian  Influences,  315.  Jewish  Sects, 
316.  Antiochus  Epiphanes,  318.  The  Maccabees,  —  Judas,  322.  Jona- 
than, 325.  Simon,  326.  John  Hyrcanus,  327.  Asmonsean  Kings,  330. 
Jerusalem  taken  by  Pompey,  333.    Herod,  335. 

The  Alexandrians,  346  -  378.  Grecian  Philosophy,  347.  Epicureans 
and  Stoics,  349.  Scepticism  and  Mysticism,  357.  The  Jews  in  Egypt, 
361.     Septuagint,  363.     Therapeuta,  369.    Philo,  370. 

The  Messiah,  379-426.  Eesults  of  Herod's  Keign,  381.  Judsea  a 
Roman  Province,  383.  Pilate,  385.  Rabbins  and  Sanhedrim,  386.  Inter- 
pretation of  Scripture,  388.  Doctrine  of  the  Messiah,  393.  Jewish  Sects, 
398.  The  Essenes,  399.  John  the  Baptist,  403.  Jesus  of  Nazareth,  404. 
Expectation  of  his  Second  Coming,  408.  The  Christian  Church,  411. 
Herod  Agrippa,  412.  Jewish  Revolts,  414.  Siege  of  Jerusalem,  417. 
Revolt  under  Hadrian,  423.    Modem  Jews,  424. 


Aaron,  39,  42,  43,  56,  61,  62. 

Abraham,  6,  7,  10,  11-21,  371. 

Absalom,  132  - 134. 

Agrippa,  King,  331,  415. 

Ahab,  178,  182. 

Ahaz,  188,  191. 

Akibah,  R.,  423,  425. 

Alexandria,  360.  Jews  in,  361.  In- 
stitute, 364.     Schools  of,  365,  376. 

Alexandrians,  346  -  378. 

Allegory,  297,  365,  371. 

Altar,  154,  216.  230. 

Amalek,  6,  23,  48,  65,  87,  122. 

Ammon,  15,  18,  34,  89,"  106, 129,  204. 

Amorites,  6,  63. 

Amos,  187,  273. 

Ark  of  the  Covenant,  56,  153,  155. 

Asa,  176, 184. 

Ashera  and  Astarte,  210. 

Asmonaean  Kings,  330. 

Assyrians,  188,  199. 

Atonement,  Day  of,  240.  Jewish 
Doctrine  of,  233,  395. 

Azazel,  55,  210,  214,  241. 

Baal,  or  Bel,  14,  178,  210. 

Babylon,  286. 


Balaam,  64,  372,  388,  406. 

Bar-Cochab,  423. 

Benjamin,  76,  80,  81,  85,  105. 

Bethel,  13,  76,  215. 

Canaan,  Conquest  of,  63,  67,  73. 

Canaanites,  6-8,  67,  68,  73,  82,  148, 

150.     Customs  and  Superstitions, 

197,  209-217,244,  249. 
Captivity  in  Babylon,  207,  283. 

Duration,  278,  289.    Effects,  290  - 

297.     Captivities,  361. 
Chaldaeans,  188. 
Chasidim,  314,  315,  322,  329. 
Cherethites  and  Pelethites,  92,  123. 
Christian  Doctrine,  409.     Church, 

411. 
Chronology  of  Judges,  74 ;  of  Kings, 

427;  of  Prophets,  268. 
Circumcision,  59,  70,  228,  320. 
Cyrene,  364.    Massacres  in,  422. 
Cyrus,  287,  300. 

Damascus,  11,  148,  171,  173,  181. 
Daniel,  288,  321. 
David,  107, 108,  113-144,  278. 
Deborah,  83,  96.    Song  of,  84. 
Decalogue,  64. 


INDEX. 


433 


Dedication,  Feast  of,  324. 

Deuteronomy,  200. 

Edom,  23,  26,  34,  68,  128,  204,  214, 
327,  338,  381. 

Egypt,  early  Civilization,  31.  Op- 
pression of  Hebrews,  38.  Plagues, 
44.  Relations  with  Solomon,  149. 
With  Israel,  176,  189.  With  Ju- 
dah,  192,  203,  204.  Influence  on 
Hebrew  Thought,  199.  ( See  Alex- 
andria.) Conquest  and  Rule  of 
Palestine,  310-312,  316. 

El,  17,  27,  52,  210,  211. 

Elijah,  179,  263. 

Elisha,  180.  His  political  influence, 
181. 

Ephraim,  75,  85,  291. 

Epicurus,  349. 

Essenes,  316,  399-401,  419. 

Ezekiel,  198,  201,  269,  274,  283,  288. 

Ezra,  302  -  304. 

Festivals  of  Hebrews,  232 ;  of  Syri- 
ans, 214. 

Felix,  Festus,  Floras,  Roman  Gov- 
ernors, 413,  414. 

Future  State,  Doctrine  of,  274. 

Galilee,  188,  396,  404,  416. 

Gibeonites,  110,  137. 

Gilboa,  Battle  of,  112,  121. 

Gilead,  77,  82,  89,  183,  188 

Greek  Empire  in  the  East,  308.  In- 
fluence on  Jews,  312,  315.  Phi- 
losophy, period,  346. 

Habakkuk,  204,  205,  269. 

Health  Regulations,  58,  226. 

Hebrews,  Race,  9.  Migration,  11. 
In  Egypt,  38,  53.  In  the  Desert, 
48,  60.    In  Canaan,  70,  73,  219. 

Hebron,  13,  15.    David  in,  122. 

Herod  the  Great,  335-343,  381, 398. 

Herod  Agrippa,  331,  412. 

Hezekiah  (King),  191-195;  (Rob- 
ber), 335. 

Horses  in  Israel,  69,  164,  219. 
1  9 


Hosea,  187,  265,  268. 

Human  Sacrifice,  20,  197,  216,  218, 
238. 

Hycsos,  or  Shepherd  Kings,  32,  68. 

Hyrcanus,  332,  340 ;  (John),  327. 

Isaac,  20,  21. 

Isaiah,  191,  194,  196,  273. 

Ishbosheth,  119,  124. 

Ishmael,  19. 

Israel,  24,  211 ;  (northern  Kingdom), 
168. 

Jacob,  23.  His  Flight,  24.  Return, 
25.    Later  Life,  27.    Oracle  of,  78. 

Jannes  and  Jambres,  64. 

Jason  (Joshua),  319. 

Jehovah  (the  Name),  52,  211,  293. 

Jeroboam,  166, 175, 177.  Jeroboam 
IL,  187. 

Jerusalem,  125.  Siege  by  Sennache- 
rib, 193 ;  by  Nebuchadnezzar,  205 ; 
by  Pompey,  333;  by  Titus,  417. 
Destraction  of,  418,  424. 

Jesus  of  Nazareth,  404.  Expecta- 
tion of  his  Second  Coming,  408. 

Jews  (the  Name),  289. 

Joab,  123, 128,  131,  147. 

Job,  Book  of,  23,  27,  271,  273. 

Joel,  185,  268,  273. 

John  the  Baptist,  403. 

John  Hyrcanus,  327. 

Jonathan,  son  of  Saul,  117, 118.  The 
Maccabee,  325. 

Joseph,  28.    His  Descendants,  75. 

Joseph  the  Tax-gatherer,  317. 

Josephus,  the  Historian,  416. 

Joshua,  66;  (the  Priest),  298;  (Ja- 
son), 319. 

Josiah,  Reform,  200.     Death,  203. 

Jubilee,  51,  236. 

Judsea,  289.  Independence,  of,  327. 
A  Roman  Province,  383. 

Judah  (Tribe),  76,  79;  (Kingdom), 
168,  174. 

Judges,  73  - 112. 


434 


INDEX. 


Kings  of  Israel  and  Judah,  171  -  207. 

Law,  the,  208-251. 

Laws  of  Moses,  50.    Decalogue,  54. 

Levi,  Tribe,  78,  79,  246. 

Levirate  Marriage,  226. 

Levitical  Law,  early  Traces,  98, 126. 
Development,  157,  174, 244-250. 

Logos,  Doctrine  of,  353, 365, 368,  374. 

Maccabees,  311-345.  Family  of, 
322,  326.    Descendants,  330. 

Malachi  (Ezra),  304. 

Manasseh,  Tribe,  75,  85.  King,  197. 
His  Persecutions,  198.  Son  of 
High-priest,  306. 

Mariamne,  wife  of  Herod,  339  -  341. 

Mattathias,  son  of  Asraonai,  321. 

Megiddo,  Battles  at,  82,  203. 

Melchizedek,  17,  390. 

Messianic  Prophecies,  186, 191,  276. 
Expectations,  344, 393.  Doctrine, 
394-398,408. 

Micah,  191,  216,  269,  273. 

Micaiah,  182,  257. 

Midian,  19,  65,  87. 

Miriam,  38,  46,  61. 

Moab,  15,  18,  34,  68,  77,  127,  204. 

Moloch,  163,  213,  218. 

Moriah,  20,  138,  152. 

Moses,  36  -  72, 244, 245.  Talmudic 
Legends  of,  392. 

Mysticism,  359. 

Mythology,  Syrian,  209  -  212. 

Nadab  and  Abihu,  61. 

Nebuchadnezzar,  204,  285, 302. 

Nehemiah,  305,  306. 

Nineveh,  190,  201. 

Obadiah,  204,  269. 

Palestine,  Name,  91.  Natural  fea- 
tures, 2-4.  Condition  after  the 
Conquest,  82, 219.  After  the  Cap- 
tivity, 298,  314.  As  a  Roman 
Province,  343,  384. 

Passover,  238. 

Patriarchs,  1  -  85. 


Pentecost,  239. 

Persian  Religion,  287. 

Pharisees,  316,  329. 

Philistines,  5.  Origin,  90.  Contests 
with  Israel,  92, 121,  127. 

Philo  of  Alexandria,  370  -  375. 

Phoenicia,  8, 135, 150, 165,  192. 

Pilate,  385. 

Plato,  348. 

Polygamy,  130, 169, 163,  226. 

Pompey,  333. 

Prince  of  the  Captivity,  291. 

Priesthood,  126, 156, 174, 246.  Aris- 
tocracy of,  292. 

Prophecy,  95, 102, 177, 186.  Messi- 
anic, 276. 

Prophets,  252  -  280. 

Ptolemy,  281,  310,  312,  360. 

Rabbins,  386,  419 

Rehoboam,  167. 

Ritual,  54,  56,  157,  228  -  234,  293. 

Rome,  318,  325, 330,  332.  Influence 
in  Syria,  318,  336.  Government 
of  Judaea,  343,  383,  418. 

Sabbath,  58,  211,  234,  294;  (Year), 
235,  243,  294. 

Sacrifice,  54,  215,229.  The  Table, 
215,  229.  Altar,  216,  239.  Burnt- 
offering,  231.  Peace-ofFering,  232. 
Sin  and  Trespass  offering,  233. 
Human  Sacrifice,  20, 197,216, 218, 
238. 

Sadducees,  315,  328. 

Samaria,  176, 181.    Fall  of,  190, 328. 

Samaritans,  190,  291,  299,  307. 

Samson,  81,  92  -  94. 

Samuel,  99  - 112,  254.  Differenco 
with  Saul,  109. 

Sanhedrim,  335,  342,  887. 

Satan,  137,  297. 

Saturn,  210, 211. 

Saul,  105  - 112 ;  and  David,  108, 117. 

Scepticism,  157,  357. 

Scythians,  202. 


mDEX. 


435 


Sects,  294,  316,  398. 

Sennacherib,  192  - 194. 

Septuagint,  210,  214,  363. 

Seventy  Weeks,  278.  Years,  278, 
289. 

Shem,  9.     Genealogy  of,  10. 

Shiloh,  70, 75,  79,  82,  98,  173,  388. 

Simon  the  Just,  313. 

Simon  the  Maccabee,  326. 

Sinai,  39,  49,  392. 

Slavery,  58,  148,  225,  369. 

Sodom,  Description  by  Strabo,  4. 
Destruction,  18. 

Solomon,  145  - 170. 

Stoic  Doctrine,  353. 

Symbols,  Language  of,  265,  274. 

Synagogue,  306,  313.  At  Alexan- 
dria, 364. 

Tabernacles,  Feast  of,  242.  Descrip- 
tion by  Plutarch,  242. 

Talmud,  390. 


Temple  at  Jerusalem,    Solomon's, 

151  - 156.    Zembbabel's,  299, 301. 

Herod's,  337,  381. 
Ten  Tribes,  Revolt,  167,  172,  249; 

Dispersion,  190,  250,  291. 
Teraphim,  25,  27,  215. 
Therapeutse,  369. 
Tophet,  197,  218. 
Tribes,  57,  74,  224.    Settlement  of, 

76-78. 
Tyre,  100, 192. 

Wandering,  Israelite,  48,  60,  219. 
Wisdom  of  Solomon,  367. 
Women  in  Israel,  96. 
Zealots,  383,  398,  415,  418,  420. 
Zebulon,  77,  79,  85,  188. 
Zedekiah,  King,  204  -  206.   Prophet, 

261,  265. 
Zeno,  352,  357. 
Zephaniah,  202,  269. 
Zerubbabel,  298. 


THE    END. 


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Recent  Publications.  5 

Ninety  Days'  Worth  of  Europe.  Memoranda  of  Travel, 
and  Familiar  Letters  to  Friends  at  Home.  By  Rev.  E.  E.  Ha^e. 
With  numerous  illustrative  sketches  on  wood.     16mo.     75  cents. 

*'Mr.  Hale  inherits  the  use  of  a  facile  pen,  wide  bearings  of  learning,  and  pre- 
serves in  these  rambling  references  much  of  the  quick  evolutions  of  his  talk.  It 
has  one  positive  element  of  worth  ;  it  has  not  been  studiously  collated  with 
•Murray,'  as  the  journeymongers  are  wont."  —  Boston  Correspondent  JVew  York 
World. 

Pictures  and  Flowers  for  Cliild-LiOvers.  l8mo. 
Illustrated.    50  cents. 

"  This  is  really  a  charming  selection  of  the  good  things  said  about  children  by 
poets  and  prose-writers  the  past  three  centuries.  The  modest  volume  is  a  mine 
of  rich  '  brilliants  »  from  the  best  British  and  American  poets,  and  must  be  an 
acceptable  present  to  any  member  of  a  home-circle."  —  Boston  Transcript 

"  Parents  and  sympathizers  with  children's  sorrows  and  joys  have  only  to 
know  how  many  good  things  there  are  in  its  pages,  to  create  a  demand  which  a 
hundred  thousand  copies  will  not  satisfy."  —  JVorfolk  County  Journal. 

Katlierine  Morris.  An  Autobiography.  By  the  Author  of 
"  Step  by  Step,  or  Delia  Arlington,"  and  "  Here  and  Hereafter." 
12mo.    $  1.00. 

Without  any  loud  pretensions,  or  attempts  at  creating  a  sensation,  this 
thoroughly  good  book  has  noiselessly  made  its  way  into  the  hands  of 
appreciative  readers  and  critics.  Even  the  London  Athenceum  gives  it  a 
hearty  commendation  for  its  spirit  and  execution. 

"  Among  the  excellent  religious  tales  which  exhibit  in  so  attractive  form  many 
phases  of  the  popular  Christianity,  we  are  glad  to  call  special  attention  to  one  of 
the  latest,  and,  it  seems  to  us,  one  of  the  best."  —  Christian  Examiner. 

"  Pervaded  by  a  fine  religious  spirit,  it  leaves  the  best  impression  which  this 
kind  of  literature  is  capable  of  producing."  —  RelifrioxLs  Magazine. 

"  The  earnest  piety  of  a  true  Christian  is  constantly  manifest,  and  the  moral  of 
the  tale  is  well  inculcated."  —  Saturday  Evening  Gazette. 

The  Boy  Inventor.  A  Memoir  of  Matthew  Edwards,  by  the 
Author  of  "  The  Age  of  Fable."    Illustrated.     16mo.     50  cents. 

Rarely  does  a  little  book  make  its  way  so  rapidly.  The  first  edition 
(one  thousand  copies)  sold  in  about  six  weeks.  Hundreds  of  critical 
notices  could  be  appended,  indicating  the  favor  with  which  it  has  been 
received  by  the  press.  The  burden  of  all  is,  that  the  volume  is  invaluable 
as  a  stimulation  to  patient  industry,  and  improvement  of  opportunities. 
Every  boy  in  the  land  should  read  it. 


6  Walker,  Wise,  &;  Go.'s 

The  Church  of  the   First  Three   Centuries ;    or, 

^  Notices  of  the  Lives  and  Opinions  of  some  of  the  Early  Fathers, 
with  special  Reference  to  the  Doctrine  of  the  Trinity,  illustrating 
its  Late  Origin  and  Gradual  Formation.  By  Alvan  Lamson, 
D.D.     8vo.    $1.75. 

"  In  this  erudite  work,  an  exposition  is  given  of  the  early  theology  of  the  Chris- 
tian Church,  as  exemplified  in  the  opinions  of  Justin  Martyr,  Clement  of  Alexan- 
dria, Origen,  and  Eusebius."  —  J\rew  York  Tribune, 

"  Dr.  Lamson's  careful  habits  of  inquiry,  sagacious  discernment,  candid  moder- 
ation, familiarity  with  ancient  learning,  and  lucid  and  direct  style,  have  produced 
a  work  full  of  entertaining  information,  which  can  be  depended  upon  for  its  accu- 
racy, and  attractive  by  its  literary  execution."  —  Christian  Register. 

"  We  conceive  this  to  be  a  highly  valuable  publication.  It  shows  the  human 
origin  of  the  doctrine  of  the  Trinity,  and  traces  its  gradual  growth,  and  incorpo- 
ration into  the  Christian  Church." —  Christian  Ambassador. 

In  addition  to  other  forcible  testimony  on  this  side  the  Atlantic,  the 
London  Critical  Journals  bear  witness  to  Dr.  Lamson's  scholarly  ability 
and  fairness. 


l>isquisitions  and  Notes  on  the  Gospels.  —  Mat- 
thew. By  Rev.  John  H.  Morison,  D.  D.  Second  Edition, 
revised  and  improved.     12mo.    $  1.25. 

This  important  work,  which  has  been  long  in  preparation,  and  upon 
which  the  accurate  and  accomplished  author  has  bestowed  great  labor 
and  thought,  will,  it  is  believed,  meet  a  decided  want  in  this  department 
of  knowledge.     The  publishers  invite  public  attention  to  it. 

"The  object  of  this  work  is  to  assist  in  the  interpretation  of  the  Gospels.  It 
does  not  seek  to  go  beyond  the  authority  of  Jesus.  It  does  not  undertake  to  show 
what  the  Evangelists  ought  to  have  said,  and  to  force  their  language  into  accord- 
ance with  it."  —  Extract  from  the  Preface. 

"  The  author  has  done  his  work  well,  and  the  book  will  prove  a  most  interest- 
ing and  useful  help  to  students  of  the  New  Testament."  —  Boston  Advertiser. 

'*  The  '  Notes '  evince  a  thorough  knowledge  of  the  Scriptures,  an  extensive 
acquaintance  with  ancient  and  modern  commentators,  and  strong  native  powers 
of  analysis."  —  Saturday  Evening  Gazette. 

"  We  cannot  refrain  from  heartily  commending  the  spirit  in  which  this  work  is 
conceived  and  expressed.  The  attitude  of  the  author,  and  the  one  into  which  he 
seeks  to  lead  his  readers,  is  that  of  a  reverent  student  of  the  words  of  Christ, 
placing  perfect  faith  on  all  his  teachings,  and  seeking  only,  by  freeing  the  mind 
from  the  trammels  of  prejudice  and  preconceived  opinions,  to  arrive  at  the  true 
meaning  of  those  teachings.  This  loving  and  reverential  spirit,  united  to  ripe 
scholarship,  abundantly  fits  the  author  for  his  task,  and  makes  his  work  a  valu- 
able guide  to  students  of  the  Bible."  —  Boston  Journal. 


Recent  Puhlicaiions, 


Patty  Williams's  Voyage. 

The  Story  of  the  Princess  Narina  and  her  Silver-feathered  Shoes. 

Nobody's   Child ;   and   other   Stories.      Edited   by   the  Author  of 
"Violet,"    "Daisy,"  "Noisy  Herbert,"  &c. 

Sunny-eyed   Tim,  the   Observant   Little  Boy.     By  the  Author  of 
"Faith  and  Patience,"  &c. 

Theda  and  the  Mountain.     By  the  Author  of  "  Summer  with  the 
Little  Grays." 

Juthoo  and  his  Sunday  School.     A  Tale  of  Child-Life  in  India. 
By  the  Brahmin,  J.  G.  Gangooly. 

These  little  books  are  to  be  published  in  an  attractive  manner,  at  the 
low  price  of  twenty-Jive  cents  each,  to  meet  the  demand  for  good  but  cheap 
Juveniles. 

"  They  possess  the  rare  merit  of  being  written  in  a  style  easily  comprehended 
by  those  for  whom  they  are  designed,  and  on  themes  that  combine  interest  with 
instruction.''  —  Burlington  Sentinel. 

'»  The  whole  series  are  of  a  character  unexceptionable  in  every  point,  and  ad- 
mirably suited  for  the  home  or  the  Sunday  School."  —  Si/racwse  Courier' 


FRED.    FREELAND;    or,   The    Chain    of    Circumstances. 

75  cents. 

"  We  cordially  recommend  this  finely  written  and  instructive  tale." —  Philadelphia 
National  Argus. 

"Exceedingly  interesting  and  instructive."  —  Dover  Gazette. 

"  Cannot  fail  to  interest  and  improve."  —  Burlington  Sentinel. 

"  Attractive  in  style,  and  unexceptionable  in  matter."  —  Woodstock  Spirit  of  the 
•Age. 

"  Well  conceived  and  happily  executed."  —  Boston  Christian  Era. 

"An  excellent  volume."—  Greenfield  Gatette. 

"  We  can,  with  much  pleasure,  commend  it."  —  Fall  River  News. 

"  A  good  book."  —  Haverhill  Banner. 

"  Inculcating  an  excellent  moral."  —  Peterson'' s  Magazine. 

"  Quite  spirited,  and  will  be  read  with  interest."  —  Northampton  Gazette. 

"  The  general  tendency  of  the  book  is  wholesome."  —  Salem  Observer. 


Walker  J  WisCf  4*  Oo.^s  Recent  Publications. 


ALL   THE   CHILDREN'S    LIBRARY. 

NOISY  HERBERT,  and  other  Stories  for  Small  Children. 

50  cents. 

Tlie  R.  B.  R.'s  :  My  liittle  Neighbors.    50  cents 

BESSIE    GRANT'S    TREASURE.     50  cents. 

A  SUMMER  WITH  THE  lilTTIiE   GRAYS.    50  cents. 

FAITH   AND    PATIENCE.    A  Story  — and  something  more— for  Boys. 
75cts. 

MODESTY  AND  MERIT.     75  cents. 
All  fully  and  finely  illustrated,  and  tastefully  bound. 

"  These  books  may  be  unreservedly  recommended."  —  Daily  Advertiser. 

"  We  cordially  recommend  them."  —  Sunday  School  Gazette. 

"  This  charming  Library,  for  variety  and  adaptation  to  meet  the  wants  of  the 
various  ages  of  a  family  group,  is  certainly  unsurpassed."  —  Christian  Register. 

"  For  lessons  of  truth,  honesty,  generosity,  courtesy,  and  all  of  manliness  (not 
more)  that  should  be  found  in  the  ingenuous  boy, — and  these  lessons,  not  in  a 
didactic  form,  but  insinuated  in  the  natural  course  of  a  graceful  and  charming 
story,  —  we  have  seldom  seen  '  Faith  and  Patience '  paralleled,  never  surpassed,  in 
juvenile  literature.  Its  morality  is  that  of  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount,  and  it  is  redo- 
lent throughout  of  the  spirit  of  the  Divine  Teacher."  —  North  American  Review. 


ALICE'S    DREAM.    A  Tale  of  Christmas-Time.    Two  exqui- 
site Illustrations  by  Billings.     50  cents. 

A  charmingly  written  Christmas  Story,  worthy  the  perusal  of  old  and 
young. 

"  A  tone  of  practical  common  sense  and  piety  pervades  '  Alice's  Dream,'  and 
we  strongly  recommend  it."  —  Saturday  Express. 

"  The  story  is  pleasantly  told,  and  conveys  a  fitting  Christinas  lesson  of  true, 
unselfish  charity."  —  Boston  Journal, 

"  Calculated  to  exercise  a  good  and  refining  influence  upon  the  hearts  of  the 
young."  —  Essex  County  Democrat. 


i\ 


THIS  BOOK  IS  DUE  ON  THE  LAST  DATE 
STAMPED  BELOW 

AN  INITIAL  FINE  OF  25  CENTS 

WILL  BE  ASSESSED   FOR   FAILURE  TO   RETURN 
THIS   BOOK   ON   THE   DATE   DUE.   THE  PENALTY 
WILL  INCREASE  TO  SO  CENTS  ON  THE  FOURTH 
DAY    AND    TO    $1.00    ON    THE    SEVENTH     DAY 
OVERDUE. 

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UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  UBRARY 


